THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


•  •  vr  -v 
/*,   ''- 

s 


:  •'•#••;> 

7fp    - 


feSjr^aC  W  ViV   v**fcr-r--r-i 


' 


, 


WATKINSON  LIBRARY 

HARTFORD,  CONN. 

GIFT  OF 


I 


BY    THE    SAME    AUTHOR. 


THE   MOUNTAIN  ANTHEM. 

THE    BEATITUDES    IN     RHYTHMIC     ECHOES. 

BY    WILLIAM    C.    RICHARDS. 

Elegantly  bound  in  cloth,  full  gilt,  $1.50;  or  in  the  beautiful 

"Golden  Floral"  stifle.     Covers  in  colors.    Gilded, 

fringed,  and  tasselled,  $1.75, 

THE  Beatitudes,  or  Christ's  "  Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  constitute, 
perhaps,  one  of  the  most  familiar  passages  in  Sacred  Scripture. 
Embodying,  as  they  do,  all  the  graces  of  true  manhood  and  woman 
hood,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  they  have  so  often  inspired  the 
minister  and  the  poet.  The  cordial  approval  which  was  bestowed 
upon  Professor  Richards's  versified  interpretation  of  David's  sweet 
est  psalm  induced  him  to  apply  the  same  spirit  and  method  to  the 
Beatitudes.  His  rendering  is,  indeed,  but  "  rhythmic  echoes;"  but 
they  are  echoes  which  appeal  lovingly  to  all  devoted  and  submissive 
hearts.  Miss  Humphrey's  illustrations  are  full  of  expression. 


THE   LORD   IS  MY   SHEPHERD. 

THE  TWENTY-THIRD    PSALM    IN    SONG    AND    SONNET. 
BY   WILLIAM    C.    RICHARDS. 

Elegantly  bound  in  cloth,  full  gilt,  $1.50;  or  in  the  beautiful 

"Golden  Floral"  style.     Covers  in  colors.     Gilded, 

fringed,  and  tasselled,  $1.75. 

MANY  eminent  clergymen  and  laymen  who  have  examined  either 
the  manuscript  or  the  advance  sheets  have  expressed  their  cordial 
approval  and  admiration  of  the  design,  spirit,  and  manner  of  the 
work.  The  pastoral  simplicity  of  the  sweetest  of  all  the  Psalms  is 
wrought  into  the  several  poems  with  a  charming  effect.  The  work  is 
ornamented  with  sixteen  full-page  illustrations  by  Miss  Humphrey 
and*  other  female  artists.  Such  a  volume,  superb  in  every  feature, 
cannot  but  afford  pleasure  and  spiritual  nutriment  to  many  thousands 
of  readers. 

Sold  by  all  booksellers,  and  sent  by  mail,  postpaid,  on  receipt 
of  price. 

LEE    AND    SHEPARD,    Publishers. 


SCIENCE  IN  SONG 


NATURE      IN      NUMBERS 

BY 

WILLIAM   C.  RICHARDS,  A.M.,  PH.D. 


"  Sweet  Nature,  gilded  by  the  gracious  gleam 
Of  letters  dear  to  Science,  dear  to  Art." 

TENNYSON. 

"  Science  has  not  destroyed  Poetry,  nor  expelled  the  Divine  from 
Nature,  but  has  furnished  the  material  and  given  the  presages  of 
a  higher  poetry  and  a  mightier  philosophy  than  the  world  has  yet 
seen."  —  DK.  HENRY  MAUDSLEY. 


BOSTON 
LEE   AND    SHEPARD,  PUBLISHERS 

NEW  YORK 
CHARLES   T.  DILLINGHAM 

1885 


COPYRIGHT,  1884, 
BY   LEE  AND  SHEPARD. 


All  rights  reserved. 


Shall  Science  win  no  meed  of  song, 
To  whom  all  harmonies  belong, 

And  poets'  praises, 

Her  realm  the  wide  expanse  of  light, 
While  to  the  outer  stars  her  flight 

Our  knowledge  raises? 

Oh  for  the  voice  of  seraphim 

To  breathe  a  high  and  worthy  hymn 

By  inspiration ! 

Her  themes  of  wonder  to  expand, 
Her  trophies  meet  for  Milton's  grand 

Delineation. 

"With  wit  my  wishes  far  outrun, 
I  dedicate  Love's  labor  done 

To   STAR-EYED    SCIENCE, 
And  on  the  grandeur  of  her  scope, 
To  please  my  reader,  fix  my  hope 

And  sole  reliance. 


626160 


PREFATORY. 


To  say,  in  the  preface  of  this  book,  that  writing 
verse  has  been  the  author's  recreation  in  the  brief 
intervals  of  grave  and  oftentimes  exhausting  profes 
sional  labor,  would  be  a  fitting  apology  for  its  presen 
tation  to  his  personal  friends  only ;  but  to  make  this 
representation  to  the  public  may  not  avail  to  satisfy 
that  exacting  community  of  its  raison  d'etre. 

It  happens,  however,  that  his  verse-writing,  which 
has  been  in  a  sense  his  pastime,  does  not  include 
this  little  volume,  which,  as  its  themes  will  suggest  to 
the  intelligent  reader,  required  more  than  moments  of 
leisure  and  relaxation  for  its  preparation. 

It  is  generally  though  erroneously  supposed  that 
philosophy  and  poetry  in  union  are  incongruous,  and 


Vlll  PREFATORY, 

perhaps  the  fortunate  examples  of  their  combination 
are  too  few  to  be  pleaded  in  refutation  of  this  impres 
sion.  There  is  certainly  but  little  Science  in  Song  in 
our  literature.  The  volumes  of  poetry  devoted  to 
scientific  themes  may  be  counted,  probably,  on  one's 
fingers,  beginning  a  century  ago  with  "The  Botanic 
Garden,"  by  ERASMUS  DARWIN,  the  grandfather  of  the 
late  distinguished  naturalist  and  biologist,  CHARLES 
DARWIN,  the  author  of  books  (though  not  in  rhythm) 
unhappily  burdened  with  the  apocryphal  theories  of 
"  Evolution,"  and  the  "  Descent  of  Man  "  from  lower 
types  of  animal  life. 

A  century,  therefore,  of  remarkable  science  devel 
opment  and  progress,  and  abounding,  also,  in  poets 
both  major  and  minor  in  rank,  has  not  been  prolific 
in  poems  devoted  to  science.  Poems  of  nature  are, 
indeed,  exceedingly  numerous,  and  constitute  a  rich 
and  prominent  portion  of  the  anthology  of  the  nine 
teenth  century. 

The  paucity  of  metrical  interpretations  of  the  prin 
ciples  and  laws  of  natural  science  is  due  to  two 
causes,  —  the  general  unfamiliarity  with  these  laws 
and  their  effects,  and,  beyond  this,  the  prevailing  im- 


PREFATORY.  IX 

pression,  already  referred  to,  of  the  unfitness  of  such 
material  for  poetical  form  and  fervor. 

A  different  perception  of  the  relations  of  the  phi 
losophy  of  nature  to  poetry  —  the  highest  form  of 
expression  in  language  —  is  the  author's  self-justifica 
tion  for  publishing  this  attempt  to  intertwine  the  mar 
vels  of  Science  with  the  measures  of  Song ;  and  he 
hopes  to  reach,  as  his  best  reward,  the  hearts  of  many 
earnest  readers,  and,  it  may  be,  to  lead  them 

"  To  look  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God." 
CHICAGO,  Oct.  18,  1884. 


CONTENTS. 


EN  AVANT iii 

SCIENCE  IN  SONG        .        •        •        •        •        •  I 

STEAM       .        .        .                ..    ...      .        .        •  5 

THE  SONG  OF  STEAM  .        .        .        .       .        .  5 

ELECTRICITY     .        ...        .        .        .        .  10 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  AMBER  SPRITE    .        .  12 

THE  SPECTROSCOPE 16 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  PRISM 17 

MAGNETISM      .        .        ...       „       .        .        .22 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  MAGNET      .        .       .        .  28 

OXYGEN .        -31 

THE  SONG  OF  OXYGEN 32 

HYDROGEN 36 

THE  SONG  OF  HYDROGEN 37 

HEAT .  41 

THE  SONG  OF  HEAT 43 


Xll  .    CONTENTS. 

PACE 

THE  TELESCOPE       ....        .        .        .        .      46 

THE  LAY  OF  THE  TELESCOPE    .        .        .        .          51 

CARBON     .  ^6 

THE  STORY  OF  CARBON      .        .    '    .        . '     ...          57 
THE  SUN  .        .       ..        .        .        .        .        .        .      5^ 

OUR  DEBT  TO  THE  SUN     ....        .        .          66 

THE  STARS       .        .        .        .  .        .        .74 

HYMN  TO  THE  STARS  .        .  .        .        .77 

THE  COMET      .        .        .        .  •     .        .        .        .      81 

OWED  TO  COGGIA'S  COMET        ...        .          84 

THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE       .        .        ...        .91 

SCIENCE  AND  SONG  NOT  DIVORCED  ...          93 
THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  HOUR        .        .        .        .98 

MY  ORACLE         .    v  .'  ;  -.       4        .        .        .        I04 
L'ENVOI    .        ...     L\.\'   ..      .        .        .     107 

MY  SCIENCE         ...        .        .        .        .         109 

NOTES -     .  i 


SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


I  SING  the  fame  of  lustrous  Science,  won 
In  many  a  field  that  lies  from  Earth  to  Sun,  — 
A  hundred  trophies  with  no  mantling  stain, 
Grand  victories  the  sword  could  never  gain  ; 
Not  regal  pride,  nor  warlike  greed,  to  sate  ; 
Not  selfish  love  to  serve,  nor  vengeful  hate ; ' 
Not  realm  or  state  in  boundaries  to  extend, 
But  the  wide  world  to  bless  from  end  to  end,  — 
Conquests  that  conquer  enmities  and  feuds, 
That  soften  strifes,  and  people  solitudes, 
Make  the  drear  desert  fragrant  with  the  rose, 
And  gleams  of  universal  peace  disclose. 

A  hundred  trophies  to  my  theme  belong, 
Effulgent  Science,  meet  for  crown  and  song  ; 


2  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

And  these  the  suns,  apart  from  thousands  less, 
Whose  planet-radiance  on  our  paths  we  bless. 
For  if  with  awe  we  trace  among  the  stars 
Her  footfalls  in  their  mystic  spectral  bars, 
Her  subtle  skill  the  comet's  bulk  that  weighs, 
And  turns  its  terrors  to  a  harmless  haze ; 
Gauges  the  depths  where  unseen  planets  roll, 
And   binds  lone  Neptune   to   the    Sun's   con 
trol  ; 2 

Resolves  to  figures  that  we  shrink  to  say, 
The  mad  pulsations  of  the  violet  ray;3 
Sifts   the   murk   gloom  the  expiring  red  that 

bounds, 

Till  metals  flash  like  suns  in  its  profounds ; 4 
Or,  in  the  void  beyond  the  sky-born  tints, 
Plucks  the  weird  force  the  chemic  page  that 

prints  ; s 

Catches  the  lightnings  on  their  fulgent  wings, 
And  tones  their  voices  to  our  common  things, 
When,  needing  messengers  to  send  afar, 
With   blazing   breath    they  answer,  "  Here  we 
are  ;  "  6  — 


SCIENCE  IN  SONG.  3 

If  these  grand  exploits  with  amaze  we  see, 
While  yet  unveiled  hides  half  their  mystery, 
In  lighter  marvels  with  relief  we  scan 
The  household  bounties  Science  yields  to  man. 

Innumerous  these  as   autumn's   wind-tossed 

leaves, 
Or    precious    grain    that    droops    her    yellow 

sheaves. 

The  glowing  gas  by  which  these  lines  I  trace, 
Long-prisoned  image  of  the  Sun's  bright  face, 
Set  free  by  Science  from  its  carbon  cell, 
Turns  night   to  day,   and   waste  to  wealth  as 

well, 

Whose  subtle  breath,  to  be  a  blessing  quite, 
Needs  yet,  that,  like  itself,  its  cost  be  light, 
Lest  soon  in  all  our  homes  the    electric   slips 
Of  Edison  its  fainter  glow  eclipse ; 
Or  carbon  candles,  a  la.  Jablochkoff,7 
With  their  weird  splendor  burn  its  profits  off; 
Or,  likelier  still,  the  dynamos  of  Brush, 
Or  Siemens'  engines,  rout  it  with  a  rush,  — 


4  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Till  gas-stocks  fall,  and  dividends,  alas  ! 
That  once  were  gold,  shall  turn  out  only  gas. 
Be  wise,  ye  gas-men,  put  it  on  the  street, 
A  dollar  for  a  thousand  cubic  feet  ; 8 
And  then,  in  spite  of  Maxim,  new  or  old, 
Or  Menlo  Park,  your  gas   shall   still  be  gold. 

Nor  light  alone,  but  warmth,  from   Science 

comes. 

In  tropic  airs  to  demi-arctic  homes, 
Where  subterranean  /Etnas  vent  their  fires, 
And  heat's  old  romance  in  their  blast  expires. 
The  cheerful  grate,  so  grateful  once,  we  miss, 
And  back-logs  huge  no  longer  snap  and  hiss  ; 
But    Science   keeps   our   chambers    free   from 

dust, 
And  all  our  registers  pronounce  her  just. 


STEAM. 


STEAM. 

IN  the  caprices  of  a  winter  dream, 
I  saw  fair  Science  in  the  guise  of  Steam. 
I  knew  her  right  the  airy  mask  to  wear  ; 
Her    vapory    breath    imbued    the    cool    crisp 

air  ; 

In  silvery  mists,  half  lucent  as  they  rolled, 
She  floated  round  me  in  each  filmy  fold, 
And  swaying  to  and  fro,  like  Brocken  wraith,9 
She  sans  this  carol  of  her  life  and  faith  :  — 


THE    SONG    OF    STEAM. 

I  was  born  of  Fire  and  Water ; 

My  father  and  mother  are  they  ; 
And  theirs  is  a  wonderful  daughter, 

At  work  or  at  play. 


SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

I  drew  in  a  homely  tea-kettle 

The  first  storied  gasp  of  my  breath,10 
And,  loosed  from  a  prison  of  metal, 

I  vanish  in  death. 

The  stronger  the  walls  of  my  prison, 
The  fiercer  I  grow  in  my  strength, 

From  the  womb  of  the  water  uprisen, 
A  giant  at  length,  — 

A  giant  with  man  for  my  master, 
To  slave  at  his  bidding  and  beck, 

At  the  slight  little  risk  of  disaster, 
With  ruin  and  wreck. 

I  prove  him  the  myths  of  old  fable  : 
In  fleetness  and  force  unconfined, 

Upborne  on  my  wings,  he  is  able 
To  outstrip  the  wind. 

The  mightiest  blows  of  Thor's  hammer  " 
I  help  his  right  arm  to  excel  : 


STEAM.  7 

The  anvils  of  Vulcan  in  clamor 
He  silences  well. 

The  continents  narrow  and  dwindle 
Before  the  wild  rush  of  his  steed, 

In  whose  iron  bosom  I  kindle 
A  passion  for  speed. 

I  wrested  from  Neptune  his  trident, 
That  man  might  rule  over  the  deep ; 

And  his  ships,  breathing  fire,  go  strident 
On  billows  asleep. 

Oh  !    I  am  the  bond-slave  of  Science, 
And  shrink  from  no  labor  for  man  : 

I  breathe  to  his  foes  his  defiance, 
And  slay  where  I  can. 

No  pride  in  my  heart  makes  me  falter, 
Though  menial  the  task  he  demands  : 

Not  his  horse  is  more  true  to  his  halter 
Than  I  to  his  hands. 


SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

His  ploughshares  and  weapons  I  fashion 
For  harvests  of  bread  or  of  blood  ; 

My  breath's  the  hot  blast  of  his  passion  ; 
I  toil  for  his  food. 

I  open  his  paths  through  the  mountains 
In  resonant  archways  of  stone ; 

His  cities  are  sweet  with  my  fountains 
From  great  lakes  upthrown. 

I  stamp  the  bright  coins  of  his  treasures, 
I  break  the  rude  stones  of  his  street, 

I  slave  in  the  gloomy  coal-measures 
Far  under  his  feet. 

I  sink  the  deep  mines  when  I'm  bidden, 
And  marshal  his  gnomes  to  their  toils, 

Where  the  gold  and  the  silver  lie  hidden, 
To  gather  rich  spoils. 

The  stern  blasts  of  winter  I  soften 
To  airs  of  the  South  in  his  homes, 


STEAM.  C 

And  his  swift-winged  coaches  as  often 
Keep  warm  as  he  roams. 

When  the  fervor  of  midsummer  kindles, 
I  drive  the  cool  wind  through  his  halls : 

My  zeal,  like  my  vigor,  ne'er  dwindles, 
Though  redoubled  his  calls. 

If  he  plots  with  the  masters  of  Science 
The  lightnings  to  yoke  to  his  task, 

They  serve  him  with  me  in  alliance, 
Nor  come  till  I  ask. 

Ungrudging  I  work,  and  unshrinking, 
While  service  and  succor  man  needs  ; 

And  the  force  will  come  late,  I  am  thinking, 
That  Steam  supersedes. 


10  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


ELECTRICITY. 

"A  RAILWAY-STATION  and  a  summer  night,"  — 
Thus  might  the  title  read  of  what  I  write. 
I  waited  for  a  train  behind  its  time  ; 
And  such  delay  our  habit  counts  a  crime, 
Which  in  our  grandsires'  day  had  brought  no 

trace 

Of  vexed  impatience  on  his  placid  face. 
To  while  the  weary  hour,  I  tried  in  vain 
To  catch  some  tidings  of  the  tardy  train. 
The  telegraph,  upon  its  guarded  shelf, 
Clicked  now  and  then,  as  chuckling  to   itself. 
My  untrained  ear  had  not  the  facile  sense 
To  catch   the  sounds,    and  sift  some  meaning 

thence  ; 

But  while  I  listened  with  a  listless  will, 
A  violet  haze  appeared  the  place  to  fill : 


ELECTRICITY.  1 1 

The  brazen  register  to  giant  form 

Grew,  like  a  thunder-cloud  before  a  storm. 

I  started,  less  with  terror  than  surprise, 

As   now   the    shape   bent    on    me    glistening 

eyes  ; 

Around  his  brow  a  filmy  fillet  twined 
Of  fitful  flames,  as  fanned  by  fickle  wind  ; 
Within  his  hands  gleamed  javelins  of  strange 

light, 
Which    rayed  weird    splendors   out    upon    the 

night ; 
And  while    the  wonder    grew,  my   heart    beat 

quick 
To  hear  from  out    his    breast    the  well-known 

click, 

When  suddenly,  instead,  a  witching  strain 
Of  music  soothed  me  like  a  summer  rain ; 
And  then  I  knew  the  spirit  of  the  wires 
Was  chanting  to  me  from  electric  lyres 
A    strain    more    sweet    than    that     of    fabled 

birds, 
Somehow  translated  to  me  in  these  words  :  — 


12  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

THE    SONG    OF   THE    AMBER-SPRITE. 

Shall  I  tell  you,  O  dreamer !    my  story, 
To  while  the  dull  lapse  of  the  night  ? 

Men  see  but  faint  gleams  of  the  glory 
That  crowns  me  Electron  I2  the  Bright. 

I  was  born  ere  the  granites  were   moulded, 
Or  the  gems  in  earth's  coronal  set, 

While  the  wings  of   the  morning  were  folded 
O'er  chaos  and  darkness  as  yet. 

I  fused  the  bright  gems  to  their  splendor, 
I  wrought  the  hard  granites  to  form, 

I  fashioned  the  dewdrops  so  tender, 

With  the  force  that  enkindled  the  storm. 

Though  I  spoke  with  the  tones  of  the  thunder, 
And  looked  in  the  lightnings  abroad, 

Men  gauged  not  the  scope  of  my  wonder, 
And  shrunk  from  the  flash  of  my  sword. 

Asleep  in  a  beautiful  chamber, 
A  sage  of  the  days  long  ago 


ELECTRICITY.  13 

Beheld  me  through  lattice  of  amber, 
Yet  little  he  learned  of  me  so.'3 

Along  the  slow  march  of  the  ages, 
'Mid  the  records  of  History's  hand, 

That  blazoned  or  blackened  her  pages, 
Unstoried  for  eras  I  stand.14 

Then  Science  sprang  up  like  a  giant, 
And  warmed  with  the  wine  of  desire, 

To  phantoms  of  mystery  defiant, 
She  bade  them  unmask,  or  retire. 

I  heard,  and,  the  bolts  of  my  thunder 
Despoiled  of  their  terrible  might, 

I  ran,  in  the  trance  of  my  wonder, 
Down  the  cord  of  a  venturous  kite.'5 

That  kite,  in  the  hand  of  my  master, 
The  spell  of  my  mystery  broke  ; 

And  service  henceforth  for  disaster 
I  yield  as  I  bow  to  his  yoke. 


14  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

The  myths  of  his  boyhood  I  fashion 
To  marvels  surpassing  their  fame, 

Old  fables  of  power  and  passion 

Transformed  into  truths,  yet  the  same. 

What  was  Mercury  else  than  a  presage 

Of  me,  as  I  run  to  and  fro, 
And  girdle  the  globe  with  man's  message, 

Or  glide  with  it  broad  seas  below  ? 

The  touch  of  King  Midas16  the  Golden 
Prefigured  my  work  in  the  cell, 

Where  the  exquisite  parable  olden 
In  tangible  beauty  I  tell. 

The  fable  of  Fine-Ear,  translated 
To  fact  in  the  telephone's  wire, 

Is  marvel  of  mine,  only  mated 
With  my  currents  of  legible  fire. 

And  soon  with  miraculous  splendor 
The  cities  of  Earth  I  shall  light, 


ELECTRICITY.  15 

And  mortals  new  praises  shall  render, 
And  thanks  to  Electron  the  Bright. 

My  song  on  my  lips  faints  and  lingers, 
So  broad  are  the  trophies  I  scan, 

When  the  marvellous  touch  of  my  ringers 
Has  wrought  all  the  wonders  it  can. 

For  I  am  the  king  of  the  forces, 
Of  sway  in  the  earth  and  the  sea  ; 

And  infinite  suns,  in  their  courses, 
Keep  step  to  their  music  through  me. 


1 6  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


THE   SPECTROSCOPE. 

ONE  day  in  June,  beneath  a  London  sky, 
Blue,  for  the  nonce,  as  that  of  Italy, 
I  pressed  with  eager  haste  to  catch  the  sun  — 
Unveiled    some    favored    hours    from    smoke- 
drifts  dun  — 
In  the   great  glass  that  from  fair  Tulse-hill's 

dome  I7 

Lifts  its  broad  mirror  to  his  fulgent  home, 
Where  HUGGINS,  with  keen  spectroscopic  zest, 
Rends  the  rare  secrets  from  the  solar  breast. 
Bidden  of  his  large  courtesy,  I  went 
On  hydrogen  and  nickel  lines  intent. 
Swift  through  the  ponderous  tube  the  errant  ray 
Shot  down  in  many  a  bright,  divergent  way, 
As  from  the  spectrum's  red  to  violet's  bound 
The  sorcerer  turned  his  crystal  prisms  round. 


THE  SPECTROSCOPE.  I/ 

The  noontide  fervor  and  the  wildering  light, 
It    must     have    been    they    dazed    my    sober 

sight ; 

For  to  my  view  uprose  a  prismy  form, 
Robed  as  in  rainbows  woven  of  the  storm. 
I  caught  the  fringe  of  her  diaphanous  robe, 
Eager  the  riddle  to  its  core  to  probe ; 
But,  all  confused,  I  blundered  at  the  start : 
Quite  guiltless  of  the  interviewer's  art, 
I  asked  the  radiant  maid  (I  shudder  now 
At  my  impertinence),   "  How  old  art  thou  ?  " 
Her  rainbow  raiment  rustled  with  surprise. 
And  a  sweet  anger  warmed  her  violet  eyes  ; 
Yet  with  angelic  grace  she  veiled  her  ire, 
And  flashed  this  answer  in  prismatic  fire:  — 


THE    SONG    OF    THE    PRISM. 

How  old  am  I  ?     Ah !  who  shall  say  ? 

Old  as  the  sun's  first  golden  ray 

That  through  the  raindrops  cleft  its  way 


1 8  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

In  days  when  Time  was  young, 
And  tinted  bow  in  heaven  was  bent, — 
The  smile  of  God,  His  sacrament, 
To  chastened  earth,  of  wrath  outspent, 

As  Hebrew  sung. 

A  million  rainbows  on  the  sky 
I  painted  as  the  years  rolled  by, 
With  rapture  for  the  poet's  eye,'8 

And  God's  dear  peace  for  all ; 
And  Time  by  eras  glided  on, 
While  still  the  bow  of  promise  shone, 
With  naught  of  my  deep  secret  known, 

Through  cloudy  pall. 

Yet  I  was  then  the  lucent  prism  ; 

And  the  slant  sun- ray  through  my  chrism 

Sprang  forth  from  its  divine  baptism,  — 

God's  covenant  with  men. 
Carved  from  the  crystal  now  by  skill, 
I  fashion  rainbow  beauties  still, 
While  subtler  miracles  I  fulfil, 

Undreamed  of  then. 


THE  SPECTROSCOPE.  1 9 

In  Newton's  hand  I  broke  the  spell 
Of  silence  Nature  kept  so  well, 
And  made  the  arrowy  light-beam  tell 

The  mystery  of  its  mould  ;  '9 
Unwound  its  twisted  thread  to  seven, 
Like  the  fair  arch  that  spans  the  heaven, 
Of  broader  truth  the  kindling  leaven 

Thence  to  unfold. 


As  the  small  acorn  holds  the  oak, 
Whose  rounded  crest  long  years  invoke, 
By  slow  degrees  the  splendor  broke, 

Fore-signed  in  rainbows  bright. 
Not  Newton  plucked  both  flower  and  fruit 
His  Memnon  to  his  touch  grew  mute, 
And  Science  stayed  her  far  pursuit 

Of  phantom  light. 

Deep  in  my  lucent  bosom  lay, 

To  wake  from  charmed  trance  one  day, 

When  some  keen  glance  the  hidden  way 


20  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

Into  its  maze  divines,20 
A  volume  of  transcendent  lore, 
Unread  of  mortal  eyes  before,  — 
A  scroll  of  splendor,  blotted  o'er 

With  mystic  lines. 

Now  in  my  tell-tale  face  the  skies 
Mirror  their  long-veiled  mysteries  : 
From  sun  and  star  the  shadow  flies, 

More  eloquent  than  light ; 
Each  line  a  language  that  betrays 
The  temper  of  the  starry  clays, 
Made  up,  at  most,  in  Earth's  old  ways, 

If  read  aright. 

What  marvel  that  the  unthinking  doubt 
The  secrets  in  my  breast  found  out,  — 
All  the  deep  realms  of  space  about, 

Where  thought  and  sight  may  range  ! 
Yet  on  my  guileless  face  in  vain 
Their  vague  unfaith  shall  breathe  its  stain  ; 
Its  lustre  glows  undimmed  again : 

Truth  knows  no  change. 


SPECTROSCOPE.  21 

No  earth-enkindled  flame  that  glows, 
No  ray  from  stellar  fount  that  flows, 
But  shall  its  secret  source  disclose 

At  my  confessional. 

Linked  with  the  lens,  throughout  all  space 
The  fashions  of  the  suns  I'll  trace, 
And  paint  their  legends  on  my  face, 

In  light  for  all. 


22  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


MAGNETISM. 

GIVE  ear,  I  pray  you,  to  a  fable  old, 
By  Pliny,  in  his  Roman  legends,  told 
Of  a  young  shepherd  of  Magnesia  born, 
Who  kept   his   father's   flock  with    crook   and 

horn, 

And  led  them  at  high  noon  to  shaded   fount, 
Which    welled    in    music's     flow     from    Ida's 

Mount- 

One  day  the  lad,  his  feeding  flock  in  sight, 
Climbed  in  caprice  a  neighboring  rocky  height, 
When  sudden  fright  his  stalwart  body  shook  ; 
For  hob-nailed  shoes  and  iron-pointed  crook, 
Fast  to  the  rock,  like  limpets  to  a  cliff, 
But  for  his  tremors,  held  him  fast  and  stiff. 
Of  all  the  loadstone  feats  old  legends  trace, 
This  one  of  Magnes  holds  the  foremost  place,21 


MAGNETISM.  2$ 

But  leaves  our  wonder,  I  am  fain  to  say, 
In  doubt  to  settle  fioiv  Jie  got  aivay. 
I  give  no  date  for  this  attractive  tale  : 
Hence  critics  chronological  will  fail 
If  they  dispute  my  postulate  that  here 
The  A  B  C  of  Magnetism's  clear. 

Fragments,    perchance,    of    that    enchanted 

rock, 

By  curious  pilgrims  hammered  from  the  block, 
In  rare  museums  and  in  monkish  cells, 
Spread  far  and  wide  the  fame  of  magic  spells, 
When  mimic  boats  with  iron  at  their  bows 
On  mimic  lakes  advanced  their  tiny  prows, 
As  at  the  brink  the  conjurer  held  the    stone, 
But  seemed  to  draw  them  by  his  will  alone. 
Thus  Science,  in  those  dim  and  distant  days, 
Shrouded  in  films  of  fear,  or  blank  amaze, 
From  cautious  or  from  curious  eyes  retired, 
Nor  with  an  ardent  love  the  age  inspired. 
E'en  subtle  Thales,  the  Ionian  sage, 
The  foremost  savant  of  his  clime  and  age, 


24  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Who  gauged  the  pyramids  with  shadow-rules, 
And  founded  great  Greek  philosophic  schools, 
Yet,  like  a  child  of  some  new  toy  possessed, 
Trifled  one  day  with  a  most  royal  guest. 
The  potent  spirit  of  the  thunder-storm 
Appeared  to  him  in  soft  bewitching  form, 
Wrapped  in  a  glittering  veil  of  amber  wove. 
She  proffered  him  the  visored  bolts  of  Jove. 
He,  with  the  pretty  mask  content  to  play, 
The  tricksy  sprite  offended,  fled  away, 
And  left  her  amber  guise  alone  to  be 
For  ages  the  vague  veil  of  mystery.22 
And  great  Sir  Isaac,  in  our  modern  time, 
Made,  and   yet    missed   at   once,   a   step    sub 
lime 
In   that    grand    quest    for  truth,    to    cease    no 

more 

Till  height  and  depth  remain  not  to   explore  ; 
Though  often  still,  no  doubt,  a  while  to  halt, 
As  wit,  or  way,  or  wisdom  lies  at  fault. 
Which  baffled  Newton  in  the  case  at  hand, 
You  from  recital  brief  shall  understand. 


MAGNETISM.  25 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  o'er  all  the  earth 
Light  broke  anew  as  of  a  second  birth, 
When    Newton    in    his     prism     empaled     its 

gleam, 
And    into    seven    bright    hues    dissolved    the 

beam. 

The  sage,  transported,  saw  the  ruptured  ray 
Its  pictured  image  on  the  wall  portray, 
And  paused  his  quest,  the  startled  world  to  tell 
The  horoscope  of  light  he'd  cast  so  well. 
O  fatal  halt !  that  sevenscore  years  held  back 23 
The  march  triumphant  on  that  lucent  track. 
Too  muck  and  yet  too  little  light  from  heaven 
At  that  high  hour  supreme  to  him  was  given,  — 
Too  little  only  that  too  much  befell ; 
Mark,  and  this  riddle  I'll  resolve  you  well. 
Sunlight  in  clustered  rays  too  copious  stole 
On  the  dense  crystal  through  a  rounded  hole, 
And,  all  dissolved,  their  images  o'erlapped, 
And  their  solution  in  pure  colors  wrapped. 
With  the  device  of  far  less  light  let  in, 
Cleft  to  a  slender  shaft  through  crevice  thin, 


26  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

The  conscious  prism  at  that  sovran  call, 
Had  told,  not  half  the  truth  alone,  but  all. 
What  matter,  save  for  Newton's  perfect  fame? 
Two  centuries  late  we  have  it,  all  the  same,21 
And  subtle  prisms  on  the  spectrum  show 
What's  in  the  light  of  all  the  suns  we    know. 

The  orator,  by  some  side-light  betrayed, 
Has  often  from  his  theme  a  trifle  strayed  ; 
And  what  in  him  your  lenience  would  excuse, 
You'll  deal  with  -gently  in  the  errant  Muse, 
Since  to  her  shepherd-boy  on  Ida's  brow, 
To  find  the  thread  she  dropped,  she  hastens  now. 

That  myth  of  Magnes  farther  on  we  trace 
In  legend  of  Mohammed's  burial-place. 
His  coffin  hung  the  earth  and  sky  between, 
Poised  cloudlike  in  the  air,  at  twilight  seen. 
The  silly  tale  the  Moslem  bosom  fired, 
And  in  the  Prophet's  name  new  faith  inspired  : 
The  outside  world,  with  wonder  for  belief, 
Its  doubt  to  Science  lifted  for  relief, 


MAGNETISM.  2/ 

When  Burkhardt  sought  the  mosque  in  which 

he  died, 

And  proved  beyond  dispute  the  legend  —  lied  ! 
Thus  cunning  fable  fades  the  truth  before, 
As  time  and  story  speed  the  centuries  o'er, 
And  the  wild  visions  of  Arabian  Nights 
Pale  in  the  blaze  of  science-kindled  lights. 
What  did  not  hold  the  shepherd  by  his  heels 
Can  stop  to-day  the  train's  swift-circling  wheels, 
Or  chain  the  iron  fire-ship  to  the  quay, 
And    task    her    engines    strained    to    set    her 

free. 

Reclined  upon  the  "  Egypt's  "  deck  I  lay, 
Close  by  her  binnacle,  one  sultry  day  ; 
No  air  astir  save  what  the  great  ship  drew 
On  every  side,  as  through  the  foam  she  flew. 
The  sun  and  silence  lulled  me  that  I  fell 
Into  a  dream,  or  some  bewildering  spell; 
For  murmurs  heard  but  then  through  all    the 

ship, 
Grew  mute,  like  Fear  with  finger  on   her  lip, 


28  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

And  sunk  to  rest  the  endless  vibrant  play 
Of  Titan  engines  throbbing  night  and  day. 
I  marked,  amazed,  Ixion  at  the  wheel, 
And  saw  a  purple  cloud  about  him  steal  ; 
Which    fading    from    my    sight,    there    shone 

instead 

A  violet  nimbus  o'er  the  compass  shed, 
Out  of  whose  flame  a  quivering  music  rung, 
Soft  but  distinct,  and  this  the  song  it  sung  :  — 


THE    SONG    OF    THE    MAGNET. 

I  am  the  hardy  sailor's  bride  : 
Over  the  seas  his  ships  I  guide,  — 
Over  the  brine,  from  coast  to  coast, 
Though  by  mad  billows  vexed  and  tost. 

Before  the  mariner  wed  with  me, 
He  sailed  in  fear  the  narrowest  sea ; 2S 
And  on  the  rock  his  bark  was  broke, 
Though  stoutly  wrought  from  heart  of  oak. 


MAGNETISM.  2Q 

The  world  was  meagre  then  to  him, 
With  a  broad  ocean  for  its  brim, 
The  bulwarks  of  whose  roaring  wave 
He  might  not  scorn,  and  dared  not  brave. 

Then  I,  the  loadstar  of  the  North, 
Came  from  my  crystal  chamber  forth, 
And  won  my  sailor's  happy  eyes, 
Feigning  the  Magnet's  dim  disguise. 

Still  loyal  to  my  native  home, 
Across  whatever  seas  I  roam, 
Love's  fires  within  my  bosom  burn, 
And  day  and  night  to  that  I  turn  ; 

Content  in  exile,  that  by  me 
My  sailor  has  subdued  the  sea, 
And  on  its  farthest  billows  sails 
Exultant  in  its  wildest  gales. 

I  led  the  daring  Genoese 

Across  the  wastes  of  Western  seas, 


30  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

% 

And  kept  his  faith  and  courage  fast, 
Till  the  New  World  he  found  at  last. 

This  mighty  ship  is  mine  to  keep 
While  twice  five  hundred  eyelids  sleep ; 
And,  blow  the  blast,  or  fall  the  fog, 
She  trusts  me  and  the  faithful  log. 

Oh !  I  am  the  hardy  sailor's  bride, 
And  cleave  forever  to  his  side, 
Till  he  to  Death  gives  up  his  ship, 
And  lets  his  last  life-anchor  slip. 


OXYGEN.  31 


OXYGEN. 

ONE  night  I  slept  within  a  narrow  room, 

To   wake    before    the    dawn,    oppressed    with 

gloom, 

Rest  to  my  wearied  senses  half  denied, 
While   ghostly  shapes    around    me    seemed    to 

glide. 
A    taper's    struggling    gleam     the     phantasm 

quelled, 

And  presage  of  quick  malady  dispelled. 
The    chamber's    lattice,    and    its     door    close 

shut, 

That  trance  of  terror  on  my  spirit  put. 
Breathed  o'er  and  o'er,  the  poisoned  air  could 

give 
Scarce    to   the    flame    or   me   the  strength    to 

live. 


32  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Then  through  the  wide-flung  casement  sprang 

the  breeze, 

Laden  with  scented  bloom  from  apple-trees, 
Till   what   my  tortured   brain    had   deemed    a 

tomb 

I  knew  was  just  a  close  and  stifling  room. 
Again  I  slept  in  sweet  repose,  and,  lo  ! 
A  liquid  music  round  me  seemed  to  flow  : 
It  may  have  been  the  matin-notes  of  birds, 
But  then  I  think  the  songs  had  wanted  words, 
While  on  the  tide  of  sound  that  flowed  to  me 
I'm  sure  this  message  filled  the  melody:  — 


THE    SONG    OF    OXYGEN. 

Monarch  am  I  of  land  and  sea ; 
The  realms  of  life  are  ruled  by  me 

Since  Nature's  morning ; 
With  hosts  of  choiring  stars  I  sung 
When  Heaven's  cerulean  veil  was  flung 
O'er  the  virgin  Earth,  demure  and  young, 

For  her  adorning. 


OXYGEN.  33 

By  God's  decree,  when  Earth  was  made, 
Through  its  vapory  sphere  the  role  I  played 

Of  master-builder ; 

To  Hydrogen,  my  queen,  first  wed  — 
The  great  sea  was  our  bridal  bed, 
And  secrets  then  beneath  us  spread 

Man's  thoughts  bewilder. 

In  that  broad  realm  of  mystery  deep, 
By-ways  from  human  ken  I  keep  — 

I  shaped  this  planet ; 
With  kisses  cooled  the  hot  desire 
Of  fervid  mists,  and  changed  their  fire 
(As  heat  and  glow  in  strength  expire) 

To  ribs  of  granite. 

Amid  the  rocks  I  scattered  gems 
With  thoughts  of  royal  diadems 

For  coming  ages  : 

To-day  in  kingly  crowns  they  shine, 
With  golden  hair  their  splendors  twine, 
And  shed  their  lustre  on  each  line 

Of  History's  pages. 


34  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

I  laid  the  iron  in  beds  of  ore, 

And  planted  coals  in  boundless  store 

In  secret  places, 

Till  men  had  need  of  chains  to  bind 
Earth's  Titan  forces,  and  the  wind 
In  tireless  speed  to  leave  behind, 

O'er  desert  spaces. 

When  thou  wast  born,  and  a  feeble  sigh 
Proclaimed  a  new  life's  mystery, 

I  was  its  warden: 
Over  thy  cradle,  night  and  day, 
I  hung,  to  keep  thy  lungs  at  play; 
And   I  must  watch  till  thy  dust  they  lay 

In  Death's  white  garden. 

Till  Time  shall  end,  as  through  its  past, 
The  hills  and  groves  to  dust  I  cast, 
Creation's  great  Iconoclast, 

By  God's  ordaining : 
Only  the  sunbeam  stays  my  hand 
From  wielding  o'er  the  sea  and  land 
A  sceptre  of  supreme  command, 

In  silence  reigning. 


OXYGEN.  35 

When  I  to  stony  sleep  would  bring 

In  every  realm  each  vital  thing, 

New  forces  from  the  great  Sun  spring 

For  its  renewal : 

So  dust  and  breath  alternate  reign, 
The  dead  world  leaps  to  life  again, 
As  through  the  ages  we  maintain 

Our  service  dual. 

King  of  the  air  and  earth  and  sea, 
All  force  of  being  inheres  in  me, 

And  all  its  changes  : 
In  life  and  death,  in  bloom  and  blight, 
If  but  my  mission  be  read  aright, 
From  end  to  end  of  earth,  in  might, 
My  sceptre  ranges. 


36  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


HYDROGEN. 

A  CRIMSON  bubble,  fast  upon  a  string 
That  swayed  and  fluttered  like  a  redbird's  wing, 
Gave  joyance  to  a  child  whose  happy  mood 
Was  to  my  weary  heart  both  wine  and  food. 
I  watched  the  tossing  sphere  and  laughing  boy, 
And  gauged  by  them  the  sources  of  true  joy  : 
Convinced  they  lie  within  ourselves,  and  spring 
In  inner  thought  more  than  in  outer  thing. 
"The  boy  is  happy  in  himself,"  I  said; 
And  while  I  spoke,  lo !  all  his  joy  had  fled : 
The  buoyant  bubble  from  his  grasp  was  gone, 
And  the  small  face  a  sudden  woe  took  on. 
The  outward  thing  his  mode  of  feeling  made, 
And  of  my  logic  its  defect  betrayed. 
In  vain  I  bade  him  mark  the  bubble  soar  — 
That  pleased  me  better,  but  the  boy  no  more. 


HYDROGEN.  37 

I  bought,  at  length,  the  surcease  of  his  sorrow 
By  promise  of  another  ball  to-morrow,  — 

A  cheap  device,  for  quick  my  memory  then 
Ran  through  the  chronicles  of  Hydrogen. 
Musing,  I  watched  the  red  speck  on  the  sky 
Till  I  grew  conscious  of  a  presence  nigh  : 
I  saw  not,  only  felt,  a  breath  alone, 
A  faint,  half-spoken,  half  a  sighing  tone. 
With  ear  attent,  and  all  my  senses  stirred, 
This  seemed  to  me  the  gist  of  what  I  heard:  — 

THE    SONG    OF    HYDROGEN. 

SUBTLE  of  breath,  of  shape  unseen, 
Over  two  realms  I  reign  as  queen  ; 
Water  and  Fire  my  sceptre  own, 
The  flood  and  flame  alike  my  throne. 

In  the  dim  past,  when  on  the  deep 
Darkness  lay  brooding  like  a  sleep, 
God's  spirit  breathed  and  moved  through  me 
To  let  the  world  of  waters  be. 


38  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

So,  in  the  first  red  flame  that  curled 
From  the  pure  bosom  of  the  world, 
My  essence  and  my  breath  were  blent 
In  its  ascending  sacrament. 

And  ever  since,  of  kindled  fire, 
Without  my  breath,  the  flames  expire  ; 
And  seas  and  lakes  and  streams,  bereft 
Of  me,  were  void  and  formless  left. 

Yet  in  my  double  realm  I  reign 

Only  in  wedlock's  mystic  chain, 

Divorced  from  which,  my  thrones  would  pass 

Like  mists  away  in  unseen  gas. 

With  kingly  Oxygen  allied, 

Since  when  the  worlds  were  made  —  his  bride, 

I  shine  with  splendor  in  the  flame, 

And  give  the  floods  their  form  and  name. 

Uncounted  rubies  in  my  crown 

Flash  as  the  flames  play  up  and  down  ; 


HYDROGEN.  39 

And  gorgeous  beads  of  amber  deck 
With  quivering  rays  my  lissome  neck. 

The  dewdrops  are  my  queenly  pearls  ; 
And,  when  the  wind  the  wavelet  curls, 
Like  countless  stars  my  diamonds  gleam 
In  tremulous  flame  along  the  stream. 

My  breath,  congealed  by  boreal  blast, 
O'er  all  the  wintry  world  I  cast, 
And  mould  the  Arctic  seas  to  forms 
That  fright  the  sailor  more  than  storms. 

In  softer  temper  toward  the  Moon, 
I  swiftly  toss  the  light  balloon, 
That  man  through  airy  zones  may  move, 
And  mate  the  cloud-compelling  JOVE. 

When  Science  lends  his  hand  the  skill 
To  match  the  ardor  of  his  will, 
I'll  bear  him  like  an  eagle  o'er 
Dividing  seas  to  any  shore. 


4O  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

'Twas  well  you  dried  the  urchin's  tear 
With  promise  of  another  sphere  : 
His  may  the  high,  proud  fortune  be 
To  guide  my  chariots  o'er  the  sea. 

Bend  down  your  ear,  I'll  whisper  low 
What  all  the  world  may  come  to  know 
Though  I'm  a  vapor,  breath  unseen, 
Save  as  I  glow  in  flame's  pure  sheen, 

I,  to  the  metal  line  allied, 
May  one  day  boast  a  solid  pride, 
And  to  no  doubtful  honor  come 
As  lustrous  Hydrogenium.^ 


HEAT.  41 


HEAT. 

ONE  August  afternoon  an  evil  fate, 

For    the    swift    steamer    "  Red    Wing,"    made 

me  late. 
Her    foam-wreathed    wheels    gleamed    on    my 

cheated  sight 

With  hint  of  coolness  that  inflamed  me  quite ; 
And,  hot  and  angry  with  myself  and  her, 
From  the  thronged  pier  I  vowed  I  would  not 

stir 
From    two    till   four,   but  wait  the   "  Naiad's " 

turn, 

And  let  the  sun  and  my  impatience  burn. 
In  the  slight  shelter  of%an  awning  rude, 
Scarce  less  removed  from  shade  than  solitude, 
I  nursed  my  sultry  mood  upon  a  stool, 
And  called  myself  —  by  privilege  —  a  fool. 


42  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

The  wharfinger,  the  while  I  mopped  my  face, 
Looked    with    a    glance,    half    glee    and    half 

grimace, 
Then  said,    "  You're    up   among    the    nineties, 

Cap;" 
And  for  his  humor  I  forgave  the  chap. 

The  heat,  despite  the  din  of  trucks  and  drays, 
O'ercame  my  senses  like  a  poppied  haze, 
Until  I  dreamed,  and  in  my  dreaming  felt 
My  flesh  and  bones  at  once  begin  to  melt. 
Before    my    eyes,    which     like    two    fire-balls 

seemed, 

Thermometers  by  hundreds  shot  and  gleamed, 
And,    lengthening    ever    as    they    danced    in 

glee, 

Flashed  on  my  gaze  their  simmering  mercury ; 
Then  in  a  swift,  tumultuous  whirl  they  spun, 
And  of  a  sudden  their,  wild  waltz  was  done. 
Their    bursting     balls     around     me    harmless 

hissed, 
And  all  the  air  grew  dense  with  silvery  mist. 


HEAT.  43 

No  more  I  saw  or  heard  ;  yet  with  strange  sense, 
As  though  I  heard,  I  owned. a  spell  intense, 
That  with  all  force  of  speech,  unvocal  still, 
Held  me  in  awed  subjection  to  its  will. 
I  know  not  how  its  weird  intent  I  learned, 
Unless  by  'thoughts  that  breathed,  and  words 

that  burned  ; ' 

Though  on  my  memory,  when  my  vision  broke, 
This  song  was  scorched  like  lightning-blaze  on 

oak :  — 

THE     SONG     OF     HEAT. 

Ha,  ha !    I  am  mighty  to  rule  and  to  rend, 
And  my  home's  in  the  breast  of   the  Sun ; 

To  the  tip  of  his  sceptre  my  breath  I  extend, 
With  the  beat  of   his  pulses  I  run. 

Ye  mortals,  who  dwell  on  this  Liliput  globe, 

How  little  of   me  ye  can  learn, 
Though   your    lenses    and    daring    pyrometers 
probe 

The  caverns  and  cells  where  I  burn  ! 


44  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Beneath  your  equator,   I  give  you  a  taste 
Of  my  breath  in  its  torrid  degrees, 

Where    it    scorches  the  soil    to    a    verdureless 

waste, 
And  the  brute  from  its  fierce  fervor  flees. 

At  my  home  in  the  Sun,  the  solids  I  fuse 
Till  to  vaporous  clouds  they  distil, 

And    some    from    the    shadow-ruled    spectrum 

you  lose, 
Decomposed  in  my  volcanic  thrill.27        * 

For    thousands    of    planets    my    breath    would 
suffice 

To  flood  them  with  beauty  and  bloom  : 2S 
Denied  it,  their  vigor  would  fade  in  a  trice, 

And  each  of  its  life  be  the  tomb. 

I  move  where  I  will,  with  invisible  wing, 

By  invisible  methods  I  toil ; 
I    spread  o'er  the  earth  the  green  mantle  of 
Spring, 

I  ripen  its  fruits  for  your  spoil. 


HE  A  T.  45 

I  breathe  o'er  the  Alps,  and  the  glaciers  flow 

down  ; 
From     their    crests     the     fierce     avalanche 

roars ; 
Sweet  odors  through  all  the  green  valleys  are 

blown, 
And  Autumn  unbosoms  her  stores. 

I    fuse  the  strong  metals  to  shapes  for  man's 

needs, 

Till  the  earth  and  the  seas  he  subdues  ; 
For  his  trophies  of  peace,  and  his  red-handed 

deeds 
My  ploughshares  and  swords  he  must  use 

I  am  ever  at  work,  and  never  at  play. 

Through    me    the    stars    burn,    and    worlds 

spin, 
And  wisely,  your  modern  philosophers  say, 

In  motion  I  end  —  or  begin.29 


46  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


THE    TELESCOPE. 

SHALL  I  forget,  while  I  remember  aught, 

A    name,    a    man,  with    soul    and    sweetness 

fraught  ? 

Thy  name,  thyself,  dear  MiTCHEL,30  to  forget, 
Would  leave  me  poor,  with  all-else  memories  yet. 
I  count  the  years  since  thou  wast  rapt  away, 
Each  with  a  tear  fresh  as  I  wept  that  clay, 
When,  midst  the  horrid  din  of   civil  war, 
The  tidings  smote  me  from,  the  scene  afar  — 
That  thou,  in  battle's  harness  for  the  right, 
Hadst  left  a  living  foe  with  Death  to  fight ; 
And,  'neath  the  orange  or  palmetto  shade, 
With  sad  and  sudden  burial-rites  wast  laid. 

Before  that  fatal  strife,  through  all  the  land, 
Transformed  the  service  of  thy  cunning  hand, 


THE    TELESCOPE.  47 

So  it  laid  down  the  transit  and  the  chart, 
And  plied  with  patriot  zeal  the  soldier's  art  — 
How  oft  I  knew  thy  friendly  foot's  advance ! 
How  oft  I  felt  the  welcome  of  thy  glance, 
As,  on  the  crest  of   Dudley  Hill,  I  came31 
To  the  fair  temple  of   thy  starry  fame, 
To    feed    my   hungering    soul    with    bread    of 

heaven, 

Raised  with  the  magic  of  thy  subtle  leaven  ; 
And   slake   its  thirst  with   brimming  draughts 

of   wine 
Pressed   from    the   grapes   of   knowledge  near 

divine  ! 
What  Science  lost  when  thou  didst  draw  the 

sword, 

This  sole  fame  adds  to  patriotism's  hoard,  — 
That  thy  great  heart,  supreme  among  the  stars, 
Sank  vainly  in  the  maelstrom  of  our  wars. 

Thy  vacant  seat  in  Dudley's  trophied  tower, 
Though    filled    anon,    for   me,    from    that    sad 
hour, 


48  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

Was  empty  still,  and  is,  to  this  far  day, 
A  sacred  vacancy  for  thee  alway. 
I  wreathe  it  now  and  then  with  memories 
Of  piercing  glimpses  out  on  star-lit  seas  ; 
Of  lunar  shadows  which  thy  mighty  lens 
Transformed  for  wildness  into  horrid  dens  ; 
The  fair,  immaculate  Moon,  one  night  embraced 
By  starry  suitor  right  around  her  waist ; 
And  once,   such    smutches  on  the   Sun's  face 

lay, 

We  argued  lightly,  'twas  not  washed  that  day. 
One  reminiscence,  at  my  cost,  I  bring, 
And  pay  it  for  the  humor  of  the  thing. 
A  royal  vision  for  the  night  was  set,  — 
Conjunction,  or  eclipse,  which,  I  forget. 
"Come,"  said  the  star-king,   "with  your  wife, 

to  tea ; 

And,  for  the  hour,  sharp  seven  it  shall  be." 
With  grateful  smile  I  gave  my  glad  assent, 
And  through  the  great  hall,  as  my  way  I  bent, 
I  marked  the  clock  with  solemn  tick,  tick,  tick ; 
And,  lo !  my  watch  had  played  an  unwont  trick, 


THE    TELESCOPE.  49 

For  it  was  fast  a  quarter  to  my  sight, 
Though    with    the    steeple    clock,    at    sunrise, 

right. 

I  thought,  howe'er,  'twas  best  to  set  it  back, 
That   in   my  promptness   there   should  be  no 

lack. 

At  just  six  hours  and  minutes  fifty-eight 
I  drove  my  carriage  through  the  Dudley  gate  : 
My  host  was  there,  with  graceful  courtesy, 
My  wife  upon  the  gravelled  path  to  see  ; 
While,  with  a  comic  look,  to  me  he  said, 
"  'Twas  well  I  put  the  supper-time  ahead  ; 
You're  full  twelve  minutes  late."     I  quick  re 
plied, 

"That  cannot  be,  your  great  clock  shall  decide: 
I  set  my  watch  at  noon-tide  in  the  hall." 
He  laughed  aloud,  and  made  my  courage  fall, 
Exclaiming  with  a  glee  I  scarce  can  rhyme, 
"Ha,  ha!  now,  that's  a  joke, — sidereal  time."32 
I  did  not  lose  my  wits,  but  got  my  turn  : 
"  Sidereal  time  !     By  all  the  stars  that  burn," 


5O  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

I  answered  him,  "if  ever  I  have  seen  time, 
I  vow 'that  solemn  clock  of  yours  gives  mean 

time." 

My  gracious  host  forgave  me  my  delay, 
And  I,  you  see,  for  —  gave  myself  away. 

The  starry  visions  o'er,  I  sought  my  rest  ; 
But  visions  not  so  real  my  sleep  opprest. 
I  dreamed  I  lingered  in  the  Dudley  tower, 
And  round  me  felt  a  quaint,  uncanny  power  ; 
Tumultuous  waves  of  star-lit  ether  rolled 
About  me,  like  blue  banners  pranked  with  gold ; 
The  Equatorial,  on  its  ponderous  base, 
Turned  its  great  eye,  majestic,  on  my  face  ; 
And,  while    I   wondered   what   the    movement 

meant, 

A  murmuring  whisper  made  me  all  intent  : 
It  may  have  been  the  soughing  of  the  wind, 
But  did  not  seem  so  to  my  feverish  mind, 
Which  wove  the  whispers,  by  a  poet's  trope, 
Into  the  ballad  of  the  Telescope. 


THE    TELESCOPE.  51 


THE    LAY    OF    THE    TELESCOPE. 

Here  in  my  tower,  by  day  and  night, 
I  keep  my  watch  on  the  sky  ; 

But  less  I  note  in  noontide's  light 
Than  when  the  stars  go  by. 


Three  hundred  years — a  long  way  back 
On  the  path  of  fleeting  Time  — 

There  fell  faint  light,  on  man's  dull  track, 
From  skyey  vault  sublime. 

The  golden  Sun  and  silver  Moon, 

The  stars  and  the  crystalline  sphere,33 

Swept  round  the  Earth  with  murmurous  tune 
For  credulous  men  to  hear. 

Had  Claudius,  the  great  Ptolemy, 
My  power  and  my  uses  known, 

No  false  Astronomy  had  he 
To  the  old  ages  shown. 


52  SCIENCE   IN  SONG 

I  sprang  from  a  Hollander's  brain,34 
Though  yet  but  a  crude  conceit ; 

Minerva's  story  again 

My  birth  may  not  repeat. 

His  dream  by  a  Florentine  sage 

To  grand  reality  brought, 
I  became  the  crown  of  the  age 

In  which  the  work  was  wrought. 

'Twas  in  sixteen  hundred  and  nine 
Broke  first  on  the  world  my  fame, 

And  with  it  a  splendor  to  shine 
On  Galileo's  name. 

Then  the  skies  began  to  unfold 
Marvels  undreamed  of  before  : 

The  sage,  through  my  tube,  could  behold 
Space  through  an  open  door. 

I  laid  the  Moon  at  his  feet ; 
Veils  from  new  planets  I  drew ; 


THE    TELESCOPE.  53 

I  brought,  for  his  triumph  complete, 
Jupiter's  moons  to  view. 

My  work  grew  in  wonder  apace  ; 

Round  Saturn  I  cast  a  ring ; 
But  spots  to  find  on  the  Sun's  bright  face, — 

That  was  the  fatal  thing. 

The  world  was  ablaze  with  my  fame ; 

Kings  coveted  me  afar ; 
But  the  spots  on  the  Sun  brought  shame,35 

Like  a  cloud  o'er  a  star. 

'The  eye  of  the  universe  blurred 
With  Ophthalmia's  fatal  stroke  : 

Such  impiety  never  was  heard ! ' 
And  thus  Enmity  woke. 

But  the  spots  I  multiplied  still, 

And  errant  comets  I  caught ; 
Clusters  of  stars  disclosed,  until 

They  bewildered  sight  and  thought. 


54  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

My  skill  has  grown  with  centuries. 

Little  the  Florentine  thought 
Of  the  grand  celestial  ministries 

With  which  ray  work  was  fraught. 

In  Herschel's  hands  I  swept  the  sky 
Far  and  wide  from  Afric's  cape, 

Reft  suns  and  stars  of  their  mystery, 
And  gave  the  nebules  shape. 

Some  stars  to  double  suns  I  split, 
That  whirl  like  prismatic  tops ; 

The  Milky  Way,  I  gathered  it 
In  orbs  like  silver  drops. 

My  huge  Herschelian  bulk  I  held 
The  uttermost  of  my  pride  ; 

And,  when  to  Rosse's  tube  it  swelled,36 
What  dared  I  hope  beside  ? 

To-day  a  thousand  hills  are  crowned, 
Like  fair  Dudley's,  with  my  kind,  — 


THE   TELESCOPE.  55 

Great  sentinels  which  sweep  around 
Wherever  blows  the  wind. 

We  pierce  the  depths  of  outer  space, 

Flames  of  dying  suns  descry, 
Track  vagrant  comets  in  their  race 

At  random  through  the  sky. 

Another  Neptune  for  your  Sun 
Barely  hides  in  chance  or  hope  ; 

Yet,  while  stars  glow  and  cycles  run, 
Fame  crowns  the  Telescope. 


56  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 


CARBON. 

ONE  winter  night,  within  my  curtained  room, 
Whence    glowing    carcel    lamps    expelled    all 

gloom, 

And  where  a  cheerful  fire  of  cannel  burned, 
A  tale  as  of  "Arabian  Nights"  I  learned. 
I  was  alone,  —  that  is,  with  idle  thoughts 
Which  followed  fancies  free,  of  clivers  sorts,  — 
When,  chancing   at    the  well-heaped   grate   to 

glance, 

My  gaze  was  fastened  by  this  circumstance : 
In  the  red  cavern  of  a  half-burned  coal 
A  shape  so  near  a  face  upon  me  stole, 
It  seemed  at  once  to  feed  my  fond  desire, 
So  oft  indulged,  for  "faces  in  the  fire." 
The  more  I  gazed,  the  stronger  grew  the  spell, 
And  all  the  lineaments  developed  well,  — 


CARBON.  57 

The  brow  o'erhung  a  pair  of  lustrous  eyes, 
That  only  did  not  mate  mine  in  surprise ; 
Red  cheeks  and  nose  I  could  not  wonder  at, 
The  incandescent  cinder  answered  that ; 
Broad  was  the  mouth,  and  from  the  lips,  apart, 
It  seemed  as  if  some  glowing  speech  must  start. 
Perhaps  I  dozed,  and  dreamed,  to  think  I  saw 
A  jerking  movement  of  the  figure's  jaw. 
I  know  I  stammered  —  incoherently  — 
Some  sort  of  challenge,  what  the  shape  might 

be. 

It  seemed  to  take  it  kindly ;  and  there  came 
A  measured  answer  from  the  mouth  of  flame, 
Which  phonographed  itself  upon  my  brain, 
And  I  can  chant  it  to  your  ear  again. 


THE   STORY   OF    CARBON. 

What  can  I  say  for  myself  ?     Do  you  ask 
What's  my  name,  my  class,  and  my  history  ? 

You  set  me,  I  grant,  an  unusual  task ; 
But  perhaps  I  can  solve  you  the  mystery. 


58  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

My  name,  then,  is  CARBO,  —  my  family  name : 

I  have  others,  I  own,  aliases. 
Though    somewhat  plebeian,   it's    true   all    the 
same, 

I  am  commonly  COAL  to  the  masses. 

Coal,  that's  not  an  alias  though,  by  the  way,  — 
Just  my  old  Latin  name  put  in  English  ; 

But  at  least  half  a  dozen  I  use  every  day  — 
I'm  in  too  many  jobs  to  go  singlish. 

I    like    to   be   frank,    though    it    may   not    be 

wise  : 

Perhaps  you're  a  sort  of  detective, — 
One    of     Pinkerton's    men    in    a    poet's    dis 
guise,— 
Yet  in  that  case  I'll  not  be  objective. 

"  Only  a  plain  interviewer  !  "  ah  !  then 
I  will  tell  you  a  very  plain  story  : 

I'm  sure  'twill  appear  in  gay  colors  when 
You've  arrayed  it  in  typical  glory. 


CARBON.  59 

My  real  name  you  know,  but  none  of  the  rest : 
I've  told  you  I  had  many  another ; 

Perhaps,  of  them  all,  I  like  Charcoal  the  best 
(That's  myself,  not  the  name  of  a  brother) ; 

Then  An-thracite — that's  a  feminine  dodge  — 
And  Plumbago  (don't  go  with  a  legion 

Who   think   that's   the   pain    so   hard    to    dis 
lodge, 
When  caught  in  the  bleak  lumbar  region). 

And  then  I  am  Graphite  and  Lampblack  and 

Coke, 

So  I'm  called  by  the  wise  allotropic: 
Why,  sometimes   I  squeeze  myself   up  in  the 

smoke 
So  small  I  become  microscopic. 

I  could  tell  you  of  other  names  yet  I  use 

In  my  manifold  impersonations  ; 
And  there's  one  (a  stunner,  I  tell  you)  I  choose 

For  only  extraordinary  occasions. 


6O  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Now,  put  your  ear  down  while  I  whisper  it 
low, — 

The  name  of  earth's  jewel,  the  peerless,  — 
I'm  the  diamond  stone ;  nay,  start  not,  'tis  so, 

And  of  doubt  or  denial  I  am  fearless. 

There's  never  a  gem  in  the  crown  of  a  queen 
But  mine  all  its  pride  is  excelling ; 

And  the  love,  hate,  and  strife  which  have  ever 
more  been 
Spent  over  my  worth  are  past  telling. 

You  marvel,  and  stare  your  denial  at  me : 
"  Only  doubt,"  do  you  say,  "  that  plumbago 

And  gems,  of  one  common  nature  can  be, 
Or  by  alchemy,  fused  to  it,  may  go  ?  " 

Ah !  this  is  the  secret  you  sought  of  my 
"class;" 

There  is  nought  else  so  various  in  nature  : 
From  lowly  to  lofty  by  magic  I  pass 

To  extremes  in  her  quaint  nomenclature. 


CARBON.  6 1 

One  moment  you  gaze  at  the  flash  of  a  gem, 
The  next  on  a  cinder  you  trample ; 

Lift  your  thought  from  the  dust  to  a  proud  dia 
dem, 
And  behold  of  my  moods  an  example. 

In    charcoal    and    diamond,    I'm   one   and   the 
same ; 37 

And  both,  by  a  mystic  transition, 
Inwrapped  in  the  fire-king's  ccstus  of  flame, 

I  dissolve  to  a  gaseous  condition. 

I  am  Coal  till  the  furnace  transforms  me  to 
Coke, 

Having  freed  me  by  gas  exhalation  ; 
I  am  Candle  and  Coal  Oil  till  clone  into  Smoke 

And  Lampblack  by  slow  calcination. 

You  sharpened  your  pencil  this  moment  to  trace 
My  words  with  its  point  on  your  paper : 

In  the  pencil  you  used  me  on  the  paper's  white 

face, 
And  again  in  your  luminous  taper. 


62  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Without  me,  your  lamps,  and  the  gas  of  your 

street, 

Were  shorn  of  their  white  incandescence  : 
Of   their   light-giving   force,    aside   from    their 

heat, 
My  atoms,  unseen,  are  the  essence. 

My  mission  as  coke  is  a  marvellous  share 
Of  the  service  to  man  which  I  render, 

Where  currents  electrical  flash  on  the  air, 
And  flood  his  great  cities  with  splendor. 

He  plunges  me  deep  in  a  mystical  bath, 
Where  the  irresolute  fire-stream  lingers ; 

Then  I  open  between  its  electrodes  a  path, 
And  light  leaps  from  the  tips  of  my  fingers. 

Of  the  breath  you  exhale  I'm  a  dangerous  part ; 

But  I  hide  in  the  soil's  secret  prison, 
And  creep  through  its  roots  to  the  forest's  great 
heart, 

Whose  vigor  through  me  has  uprisen. 


CARBON.  63 

In  my  vapory  guise,  shrubs,  grasses,  and  flowers 
To  bloom,  verdure,  fragrance,  I  nourish, 

Till  meadows  and  gardens  and  jasmine-wreathed 

bowers, 
And  Earth's  golden  harvest-fields,  flourish. 

My  stout  "  hearts  of  oak  "  ruled  once  the  wide 

sea, 

Till  Iron  and  Steam  made  alliance, 
Whose  strong  hulls  and  keels  wrested  lordship 

from  me, 
And  hold  their  dominion  through  Science. 

What  more  of  me,  pray,  from  my  lips  can  you 
learn  ?  — 

How  the  range  of  my  services  varies  ? 
How  in  earth  or  in  air,  wherever  you  turn, 

I  am  shaped,  and  I  work  by  contraries  ? 

What  I  do  not,  indeed,  'twere  a  less  task  to  tell, 
Than  what  I  do  and  have  done,  the  recital ; 

Since  in  all  Nature's  kingdoms  and  domains  I 

dwell, 
And  through  all  I  am  potent  and  vital. 


64  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 


THE   SUN. 

FOR  weary  days  I  had  not  seen  the  Sun  ; 
O'er  the  chilled  landscape  hung  the  cloud-veils 

dun; 

And  sombre  faces  matched  the  somberer  sky, 
Gray  as  the  mists  that  trooped  in  squadrons  by. 
May's  dainty  blossoms  spread  their  charms  in 

vain  ; 
H-er  song-birds  faintly  piped,  or  hushed  their 

strain ; 

And  on  the  dreary  scene  the  third  night  fell, 
In  gloom  scarce  deeper  than  the  day's  drear 

spell. 

That  night  I  pondered  on  the  power  divine 
That  on  the  glad  earth  made  the  Sun  to  shine  ; 
And,  ere  I  slept,  a  voice  fell  on  my  ear : 
"  From  shroud  and  shade  the  morning  will  be 

clear." 


THE  SUN.  65 

The   morning    broke,    and   from   the   welkin's 

face 

Had  vanished,  of  the  murk,  its  faintest  trace  ; 
And  from  my  silent  lips,  as  if  they  spoke, 
The  text  of  the  inspired  Preacher  broke  : 
"Truly,  the  light  is  sweet,  and  joy  is  won 
By  happy  eyes  that  may  behold  the  Sun."38 
The  text  to  me  a  rhythmic  sermon  preached, 
As  after  its  divine  intent  I  reached. 

Upon  the  landscape  lay  a  scarf  of  light, 
Wrought  in  the  looms  invisible  of  Night ; 
On  every  flower  there  dropped  a  golden  thread  ; 
The  thrush  a  rain  of  liquid  rapture  shed ; 
The  dewy  lawn  .with  diamonds  was  o'erstrown, 
Feigning  a  wealth  I  dare  not  make  my  own ; 
Yet  had  the  glittering  drops  been  jewels  rare, 
And  I  had  garnered  all  the  treasures  there, 
I  had  been  still  too  poor  the  debt  to  pay 
I  owed,  and  owned,  to  Heaven  that  sunlit  day. 
It  were  not  well,  the  sermon  that  I  heard, 
Plainly  as  'twere  the  matin-song  of  bird, 


66  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

One  only  auditor  should  profit  by, 
And  thousands  lose  a  lesson  for  the  sky. 
I  grieve  alone  to  feel  its  charm  abated 
By  the  imperfect  way  it  is  translated. 


OUR    DEBT    TO    THE    SUN. 

Would  you  learn  what  is  owed  to  the  Sun 
By  the  dwellers  on  Earth's  little  planet, 

The  account  I've  so  rashly  begun, 
I  pray  you,  attentively  scan  it. 

That  the  bill  is  not  small  I  confess, 
But  covers  a  great  many  pages  ; 

Yet  consider,  how  could  it  be  less 
For  hundreds  of  thousands  of  ages  ? 

Item  first,  —  is  the  sweet  light  of  day, 

With  all  its  ineffable  splendor : 
Add  to  this  every  duplicate  ray 

That's  sifted  through  moonbeams  so  tender. 


THE  SUN.  67 

Ever  since  the  Creation's  high  noon, 
The  Sun  has  illumined  the  plenum  ; 

And,  making  his  mirror  the  Moon, 

They've  lighted  our  planet  between  'em. 

Some  rebate,  I  admit,  might  be  made 

For  occasional  lapses  in  duty, 
When  for  sunshine  we've  had  only  shade, 

And  vapors  for  visions  of  beauty  ; 

And,  anon,  for  a  seldom  eclipse  — 
(Though  that  is  made  up  in  surprises) 

Grant  a  little  allowance  for  slips 
Of  all  sorts  and  seasons  and  sizes  ; 

Which,  computed  with  uttermost  care, 
May  yield  five  per  cent  to  our  credit  : 

You  may  make  such  an  entry  just  here, 
Or  bear  it  in  mind,  I  have  said  it. 

Item  second. — When,  wrapped  in  Night's  shade, 
We  kindle  the  vapor  bituminous, 


68  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

It  is  sunlight,  for  long  ages  laid 

Close  hid  in  the  coal-pits,  that's  luminous. 

All  we  turn  to  in  darkness  for  light, 

Metallic  or  fatty  or  ligneous, 
Availing  to  put  ghostly  shadows  to  flight  — 

With  transfigured  sunbeams,  is  igneous. 

He  who  burns  into  midnight  his  oil, 
The  imprisoned  sunshine  is  spending, 

Still,  to  gladden  man's  pleasure  or  toil, 
Its  ungrudged  munificence  lending. 

I  confess  there  is  something  to  pay 
For  sunlight  transmuted  to  vapors  ; 

That  it's  cheaper  to  burn  it  by  day 
Than  out  of  gas-jets  and  wax  tapers. 

But,  the  gas-bill  and  chandler  aside, 
We  owe  to  the  Sun's  incandescence 

The  day  long,  and,  while  night-shades  abide, 
Each  visible  gleam  of  Light's  essence. 


THE  SUN.  69 

You  smile ;  and  I  take  it  you'd  say, 
With  your  look  of  complacent  felicity, 

"That  is  true  of  the  past,  but  to-day 
How  much  do  we  owe  Electricity  ? " 

Hold  there,  my  dear  doubter,  you'll  get 
No  discount  for  dynamic  splendor 

From  "Brush"  lights,  or  any,  as  yet, 
Which  magnets  and  carbon-slips  render. 

You  must  prove  to  me  first,  that  the  blaze 
Of  the  arc,  or  the  white-glowing  horseshoe, 

Is  aught  else  than  of  sunlight  a  phase,  — 
An  opus  to  which  I  won't  force  you. 

I  have  done  with  the  item  of  light, 

And  you'll  own  that  the  debit's  tremendous ; 

Which  ever  unpaid,  it  amazes  me  quite 
The  Sun  should  such  quantities  send  us. 

Item  third,  —  is  the  matter  of  heat  ; 
And  a  difficult  matter  I've  found  it 


7O  SCIENCE   /AT  SONG. 

To  arrange  all  its  details  complete, 

With  a  ribbon  of  rhythm  tied  round  it. 

There's  the  heat    that    comes    down  with   the 
light 

In  increments  lesser  or  greater, 
That  warms  with  the  day,  cools  with  the  night, 

And  blazes  about  the  equator. 

You  would  easier  reckon  its  force 
If  you  lived  in  a  zone  that  is  torrid, 

Where  your  figures  to  count  it,  of   course, 
One  well  might  excuse  being  florid. 

At  far  Guayaquil,  in  latitude  two, 

An  iceberg  would  melt  in  a  morning, 

And  the  stranger  dry  up  like  the  dew 
At  noontide,  not  under  an  awning. 

What  wonder  that  great  glaciers  melt, 
And  run  down  the  Alp-sides  in  torrents, 

When  the  breath  of   July,  there,  is  felt 
As  he  issues  his  summary  warrants  ! 


THE  SUN.  71 

Through  fervors  and  frosts,  night  and  day, 

Yet  ever  with  due  variation, 
From  his  photosphere  blazing  away, 

We  depend  on  the  Sun's  radiation. 

And  his  heat,  like  his  luminous  rays, 
Lies  prisoned  in  ebony  chambers, 

Till,  set  free  to  temper  our  rigorous  days, 
It  flames  up  in  crimsons  and  ambers. 

Item  fourth,  —  and  the  greatest  of   all, 
Is  our  debt  for  the  life  of   all  living : 

Only  a  clod  —  a  blank  icy  ball  — 

Were  the  earth,  should  the  Sun  stop  giving. 

For  the  breath  and  the  beauty  of   man, 
For  the  flow  of   his  blood  in  its  courses, 

For  the  play  of   his  limbs,  seek  the  plan 
In  the  sunbeam's  mysterious  forces. 

When  the  hills  with  their  forests  are  green, 
And  gardens  grow  gay  with  their  roses, 


72  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

All  their  exquisite  vigor  and  sheen 
The  Sun  by  his  magic  discloses. 

By  his  force  in  the  wing  of  the  bird 
It  soars  in  the  ether  with  lightness ; 

By  his  breath  the  dead  lichens  are  stirred, 
And  gray  crags  are  blossomed  in  brightness. 

In  the  sea,  in  the  air,  in  the  sky, 

Life  glows  at  the  touch  of  his  fingers  : 

The  shroudings  of   Death  cannot  lie 
Where  the  spell  of   his  subtlety  lingers. 

No  dewdrop  that  spangles  the  lawn, 

No  gem  on  Earth's  bosom  that  sparkles, 

Not  a  splendor  that  flushes  the  dawn, 
No  storm-cloud  at  twilight  that  darkles ; 

Not  a  bow  on  the  storm-brow  that's  bent, 
Not  a  banner  of   sky-tints  unfolded, 

Not  a  joy  of  the  blue  firmament, 

But  the  touch  of  the  sunbeam  has  moulded. 


THE  SUN.  73 

To  JEHOVAH  be  praise  for  the  Sun, 
Vicegerent  and  type  of  His  glory, 

Through  whom  Nature's  miracles  clone, 
Shine  out  in  the  sky  and  my  story. 

If   our  debt  to  the  Sun  we  would  pay, 
For  all  the  grand  forces  of   living, 

'Tis  a  stipend  of  homage  each  day, 

Unto  God,  with  the  song  of   thanksgiving. 


74  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


THE    STARS. 

NIGHT  reigned  supreme.     A  cloudless  sky 
Shone  with  the  stars'  immortal  heraldry,  — 
A  field  of   azure,  soft  and  boundless  broad, 
Decked  with  the  argent  blazonry  of   God  ; 
The  moonlight  flung  no  pallor  on  the  flames 
Of   the  pure  Pleiads  —  immemorial  names! 
The  fair  Capella  on  Auriga's  arm 
Leaned  in  the  splendor  of  her  beauty's  charm  ; 
Arcturus  and  his  sons,  from  northward  post, 
Centred  and  sentinelled  the  glittering  host ; 
While  through  my  soul  a  thrill  of  rapture  ran, 
The  silent  splendor  of   the  scene  to  scan. 

Each  star  a  sun  !     The  lesson  I  had  learned, 
While    o'er    my    youth    their    dazzling    glory 
burned, 


THE  STARS.  75 

Filled  more  with  wonder  my  maturer  thought 
Than  to  my  boyish  fancy  it  had  brought, 
While  yet,  with  map   and   torch,  from  night's 

blue  field 

I  gleaned  the  scanty  harvest  it  would  yield. 
'Twas  later  than  those  midnight  starry  raids, 
When  what  I'd  learned,  I  taught  to  star-eyed 

maids, 

And  they,  in  turn,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
Taught  me  —  terrestrial  astronomy. 

In  the  high  hour  supreme,  of  which  I  write, 
There  was  no  sharer  of   my  raptured  sight ; 
I  stood  beneath  the  silver-studded  sky, 
And  sent  my  solemn  musings  wide  and  high ; 
With  wounded  pride,  akin  to  pain,  I  felt 
How  ill  the  language  of  the  heavens  I  spelt ; 
How  meagre  more  the  harvest  of  my  age, 
I  reckoned,  than  I  did  my  boyhood's  wage, 
For  torchlight    toils   and   tears   o'er    Burritt's 

map, 
Fearing  eclipse  by  some  more  lucky  chap. 


76  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Scarce  could  I  then  believe  the  stars  were 

suns, 
And   Earth's   great    light   among   the    smaller 

ones  ; 

While  now  I  gazed  upon  night's  wondrous  gem, 
The  dog-star  blazing  in  her  diadem, 
And,  in  its  twinkling  yet  transcendent  glow, 
Three  thousand  suns,  like  ours  for  bulk,  could 

know, 
And   stretch    its  distance  from  my  wondering 

eyes, 
Of    time,    two    centuries,   as    light    earthward 

flies.39 

The    stars    possessed    my    soul,    and,    as    I 

gazed, 

They  held  me  in  their  glamour,  sheer  amazed  ; 
Their  multitude  my  vision  mocked,  if  true 
How  few  the  thousands  in  unaided  view ; 
While,  in  the  crystal  lens,  to  myriads  rise 
Their  marshalled  hosts  that  throng  the  living 
skies. 


THE  STAXS.  77 

While  musing  of  their  numbers  yet  untold, 
Haply,  a  task  for  mortal  powers  too  bold, 
An  old  Hebraic  chant  my  memory  caught, 
As  if  it  sprang  in  answer  to  my  thought. 
The  silence  sang  with  it  as  'twere  a  voice, 
Scarce    David's   more   had  made  my  heart  re 
joice  : 

"  Jehovah  tells  the  number  of   their  flames  ;  4° 
And  all  the  stars  He  calleth  by  their  names." 
The  Psalmist's  mood  upon  my  spirit  fell, 
And  thus  I  sang  to  them  beneath  his  spell :  — 


HYMN    TO    THE    STARS. 

Ye   stars   that    mock   our   proud    attempts    to 

number 

Your  glittering  multitudes, 
Shining  in  silence  o'er  man's   strife  or   slum 
ber, 

Alike  on  Earth's  thronged  streets  and  soli 
tudes, 


78  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Our  minds,  untutored,  marvel  at  your  glintings, 

Changeless  from  year  to  year ; 
Or  deem  them,  by  some  intuition,  hintings 
Of  splendors  breaking  from  some  boundless 
sphere. 

With  broader  sense  we  grasp  your  great  un 
folding, 

Each  to  a  radiant  sun ; 

And  sometimes,  vain  of  our  profound  beholding, 
Our   folly  counts   your   marvellous   problem 
done. 

We  grant  you  limitless  extent  and  distance 

Beyond  our  native  earth; 

And  round  your  fulgent  orbs,  in  vast  existence, 
Our  faith  to  legion  circling  worlds  gives  birth. 

We  gauge  your  bulk  and  weight  by  boastful 

science, 

And  sift  to  dusts  your  flames ; 
To  your  dumb  secrecy  we  bid  defiance, 
And  catalogue  in  characters  your  names. 


THE  STAKS.  79 

O  stars  !    I  marvel,  as  ye  burn  and  twinkle, 

If  scorn  .is  in  your  gleam, 
To  mark  how  we,  the  drops  of  light  ye  sprinkle, 
Swell  in  our  pride  to  Wisdom's  ample  stream. 

We  grope  amid  your  hosts  as  he  that  goeth 

Forth  in  the  dusk  to  read  : 
There  is  but  One  your  parable  that  knoweth, 
Your  light  who  kindled  and  its  lapse  decreed. 

He  who  is  infinite  in  understanding, 
Whose  vision  knows  no  bars, 
Since   you    He    marshalled,   and   to   your   dis 
banding  — 

Telleth   your    number   and    your   names,    O 
stars  ! 

We  catch,  from  whispers  of  His  inspiration 

By  sage  and  psalmist  breathed, 
Some  names  His  wisdom  set  at  your  creation, 
When  with  your  glittering  fires  His  heavens 
He  wreathed. 


8O  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

We  know  His  Pleiades  and  His  Arcturus, 

And  other  primal  names  : 
No  temporal,  vain  traditions  can  assure  us 
How  at  your  birth  He  called  your  glowing 
flames. 

O  stars  !     we  know  not   aught   of   your   high 

beauty, 

Save  as  revealed  by  Him  : 
Teach  us,  ye  flaming  torches,  our  true  duty, 
That,  when  ye  pale,  our  light  may  not  be  dim. 


THE   COMET.  8 1 


THE   COMET. 

IN  eighteen  seventy-four,  when  April's  hand 
Was  scattering  timid  violets  o'er  the  land, 
There  blazed  upon  the  sky  a  bearded  star, 
First  seen  in  France  by  Monsieur  Coggia ; 
And  all  the  world  was  soon  agog  to  peep 
At  the  strange  craft  afloat   on   heaven's  blue 

deep. 

A  thousand  years  before,  when  o'er  fair  France 
A  kindred  fire  cast  its  untoward  glance, 
The   frightened    people    and    their    frightened 

king41 

Saw  dreadful  presage  in  the  horrid  thing  ; 
And  prayers  and  masses,  in  the  churches  said, 
Were  aimed,  in  lieu  of  lenses,  at  its  head. 
The  guilty  Louis,  in  his  conscience  awed, 
Spread  monkish  halls  and  nunneries  abroad  : 


82  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

The  fancied  perils  had  they  turned  aside, 
Themselves,  more  potent  mischiefs,  still  abide. 

Four   hundred    years    and    more    along    the 

track 

Of  Time,  and  History's  page,  if  we  look  back, 
We  find  the  comet,  now  "of  Halley"  hight, 
Blazing  o'er  Italy  with  baleful  might ; 
And  triple-crowned  Calixtus,  King  and  Pope, 
Saw  danger  to  his  thrones  in  its  wild  scope ; 
Then,  with  all  churchly  rites  of  book  and  bell, 
His  awful  ban  upon  the  demon  fell; 
And  from  that  day,  in  Rome's  Cathedral  towers, 
Bells  ring  at  noon,  though  peril  no  more  lowers. 
With  larger  learning,  and  with  freer  faith, 
We  fear  no  evil  now  in  Comet's  breath  : 
His  genus  through  our  solar  system  flies, 
Scanned  by  a  thousand  telescopic  eyes, 
Close-questioned  by  our  lenses  and  our  prisms 
About  his  age,  his  nature,  and  his  isms. 
And  when  one  comes  along,  as  Coggia's  did, 
Too  big  and  bright  from  bare  eyes  to  be  hid, 


THE   COMET.  83 

A  milliard  optics  gaze  into  his  face 
To  see  a  swifter  than  a  Derby  race. 

I  did  not  dream  when  Coggia's  comet  came, 
But,  wide  awake,  I  hailed  the  misty  flame, 
And  sung  to  that  as  hitherto  had  sung42 
Strange  shapes  to  me  with  scientific  tongue. 
I  breathed,  perchance,  some  thoughts   in  that 

address, 
Which,  pleasing  him,  may  please  you  none  the 

less. 

Its  title,  "Owed  to  Coggia's  Comet,"  looks 
As  if  I  had  some  debits  in  his  books ; 
But  all  my  debts  are  writ  in  books  below  : 
I  would  it  were  the  comet  that  I  owe  ; 
For  then    some    day  my  long   account    might 

run, 

Borne  in  his  ledger  toward  the  fiery  Sun, 
So  nigh  the  day-god's  superheated  state, 
I'm  sure  my  balance  he  would  liquidate. 


84  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

OWED  TO  COGGIA'S  COMET. 

Hail  mute,  magnificent,  mysterious  stranger, 
Whose    bright    progression    on   the   sky   we 

trace  ! 
From    what    unfathomed    depths    art    thou    a 

ranger  ? 

Ambassador  from  what  celestial  race  ? 
At  least  thou  art  an  envoy  extraordinary, 
With  shining  train,  attenuated  very. 

Though  undisclosed,  thou  hast,  I  think,  a  mis 
sion, 

Coming  with  blazonry  that  frights  the  stars, 
In  whose  grand  hierarchies  thy  position 

We  dimly  guess  beyond  bewildering  bars, 
On  which  we  beat  our  scientific  pinions, 
Spent  with  far  flight  in  limitless  dominions. 

Did  Sirius  send  thee  on  thy  blazing  passage, 
Charged  with  some  secret  for  our  sovran  Sun  ? 

And,  glowing  with  the  zeal  of  thine  embassage, 
Thy  flight  grew  faster  till  thy  task  was  done, 


THE.  COMET.  85 

And,  from  his  august  throne  in  pride  return 
ing, 

We  now  descry  thy  backward  pathway  burn 
ing? 

Or  art  thou  one  of  icy  Neptune's  neighbors, 

Come  up  with  tribute  to  his  king  and  thine  ? 
I    wot  -  his    glance    has    quickened    thy    slow 

labors, 
And    made    the    dimness    of    thy    distance 

shine  : 

For  they  must  ride  on  dull  and  dismal  pillions 
Whose    circuit    miles    reach    twenty   thousand 
millions.43 

Hast  thou  been  here  before,  as  some  conjec 
ture  ? 

If  but  the  truth  to  me  thou  wilt  make  known, 
I'll  put  thy  glory  in  a  flaming  lecture, 

The  credit  thine,  and  mine  the  cash  alone. 
How  I  might  laugh  at  all  the  learned  doctors, 
The  royal  institutions  and  their  —  Proctors  ! 


86  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Dost  marvel  that  no  more  with  ghastly  terrors 
(As  in  the  past  thy  prototypes  were  seen) 
We  view  thy  face,  but  fearing  only  errors 
In   judging  what    thou   art    and  where    hast 

been  ; 

How  many  ells  of  cloth  of  gold  thy  train  took, 
-And  how  intense  its  hues  from  Charles's  Wain 
look  ? 

Perhaps,  since  once  a  :comet  scared  Calixtus, 
And  prompted  him  to  ban  it  with  his  curse, 
Thy  frightful  spells  were  meant  to  have  trans 
fixed  us, 

Driving  us  trembling  Aves  to  rehearse, 
And  with  white  lips,  and  knees  that  knocked 

together, 
Beseech    thee    not    to    spoil    our  crops    and  — 

w.eather. 

i  •  •  • 

A  hundred  years  ago  —  or  two,  we'll  call  it  — 
Thou   hadst    not   waved    thy   horrid    hair  in 
vain  ; 


THE   COMET.  87 

In  dread  of   direful  dangers  to  befall  it, 
The  world  had  stooped  to  "bell  and  book" 

again  ; 

And  on  some  papal  bull  or  priestly  chrism 
Hung,  half   in  doubt,  thy  solemn  exorcism. 

It  well  may  be  thou  comest  with  pretension 
To  have  a  tilt  with  this  old  globe  of   ours, 

And  in  our  bosoms  kindle  apprehension 
Of   bursting  bolides,  meteoric  showers, 

Or,  at  the  least,  of   most  unearthly  odors, 

Of   deadly  maladies  the  foul  foreboders. 

We've  had,  indeed,  a  winter  most  erratic, 
And    something's    out    of    order    with    our 
spring ; 

Fierce    storms    have    lent    an    emphasis    em 
phatic 
To  prophecies  of  doom,  for  every  thing, 

This   very   year   to    fall,    said    "  Mother    Ship- 
ton  ;" 

Though,   thanks    to    Fate,    the   day  she    fixed 
she  tripped  on. 


88  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

Perhaps  thy  train,  of  most  outlandish  fashion, 

Got  tangled  in  our  atmospheric  belt, 
And  stirred  our  sweet  June  zephyrs  to  fierce 

passion, 
Which  we  in  waves  of  chilling  breath  have 

felt: 

If  so,  though  with  delight  at  first  I  saw  it,  — 
That    gorgeous    train,  —  I    charge    thee    now, 
withdraw  it. 

But  since  we  scan  the  sky  with  magic  glasses, 
Sifting     their    flames     the     tell-tale     prism 

through, 
We    boldly    challenge    each    queer    craft    that 

passes 

(As  now  our  telescopes  are  turned  on  you) ; 
And  be  it  planet,  asteroid,  or  comet, 
We  seldom  fail  to  get  its  story  from  it. 

No    dreadful    dragon    thou,    red-ton  gued    and 

ravenous, 

To    crunch    our    globe    its    fiery    jaws    be 
tween  ; 


THE   COMET.  89 

A  mighty  mass,  dim,  dubious,  and  diaphanous, 
Thy    claims    to    frighten    us    are    quite    too 

thin : 
We'd    quench    thy    fire,    both    manifest    and 

latent, 
With  one  extinguisher  of  Babcock's  patent. 

I  hailed  thee  "mute"  in  my  first  salutation, 
And  it  is  true  thou  hast  no  mortal  tongue  ; 

But  still  thou  bringest  us  a  bright  narration, 
And    dost    "  unfold    a    tale "    both    strange 
and  long : 

A  tale  that  twenty  million  leagues  surpasses 

Were  a  most  taking  serial  for  the(m)asses. 

When    first    I    saw    thy    gleams    the    welkin 

spangle, 

"A  great  celestial  engineer,"  I  said, 
For  thou  wert  laying  out  a  vast  triangle 
With    "Bears,"    both    "Great    and    Little," 

overhead  ; 

"An  elevated-railroad  route  projector, 
Or,  otherwise,  a  vagrant  star-detector." 


9O  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

I  know  not  wJiy  thou  comest,  dread  visitor, 
But    wish    I    might    have    interviewed    thee 

first. 

How  proud  were  I  to  be  the  grand  inquisitor, 
Who    of    thy    habits    learned    the    best  and 

worst ! 

Why  did  I  not  enact  the  "Artful  Dodger," 
And  get  ahead  of  that  Italian  Coggia  ? 

Speed  on,  great  pilgrim  from  a  clime  uncertain, 
'Tis    best    the   Earth    and  thou,  ungreeting, 

pass, 
Lest   one   least   grasp   should   loose  thy  filmy 

curtain, 

And  let  it  drop  —  on  thy  disrupted  gas. 
Yet,  if   thou   darest    the  shock,  why,  then,  to 

sum  it 
Up  in  two  brief   words,  O  Comet !    COME  IT. 


THE  MARCH  OF  SCIENCE.  91 


THE    MARCH   OF   SCIENCE. 

I  MARK  the  march  of  Science  far  and  wide, 
Her  brilliant  victories  won  on  every  side, 
Her  trophies  in  Toil's  methods,  and  her  tools, 
•Nor  fewer  those  she  gathers  in  the  schools. 
With  skill  she  moulds  material  force  and  form 
To  man's  behoof  in  Nature's  calm  or  storm, 
And  effete  modes  of  mental  gain  inspires 
With  the  hot  glow  of  her  fresh-kindled  fires. 
The  farmer's  golden  fields  her  foot  invades, 
And  reaping-hooks  give  place  to  serried  blades, 
Which  sweep  a  hundred  teeming  acres  o'er 
For  ten  which  tired  his  lusty  arm  before. 
So,  in  the  college-hall,  dry  classic  roots 
She  moistens  with  the  juice  of  ripened  fruits, 


92  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Fresh-plucked    from    trees    of   knowledge,  rich 

and  rare, 
Sprung  from  Earth's  soil,  and  blossomed  in  her 

air.  • 

Old  fashions  fade  from  her  triumphant  track, 
And  few  the  murmurs  fall  to  bring  them  back  ; 
For,  in  the  realms  of  matter  and  of  mind, 
She  bids  us  leave  the  "dead  pasts  "  far  behind  : 
A  broader  age  of  life  she  ushers  in, 
If  not  Time's  age  of  gold,  to  that  akin. 

While  thus,  a  scanty  lustrum  since,  I  took 
Of  Science-progress  this  enticing  look, 
I  read  (as  who  would  not,  while  yet  he  might, 
Read  what  the  Cambridge  "  Autocrat  "  should 

write  ? ) 

A  fair,  fresh  book  from  Holmes's  facile  pen,44 
In  which  one  special  lyric  stirred  me  then, 
Seeming  to  voice  a  timid,  tremulous  fear  — 
That  something  vague  and  ominous  drew  near, 
Advancing,  with  the  pace  of  Science  still, 
The  song-world  with  a  silence  drear  to  fill. 


SCIENCE  AND  SONG  NOT  DIVORCED.      93 

The  poet  of  "The  Coming  Era"  moaned, 
And  pictured  Poesy's  fair  shape  enzoned 
In  rigid  cinctures,  by  stern  Science  wrought, 
To  crush  her  form,  and  stifle  her  sweet  thought, 
Until  her  beauteous  soul  from  earth  had  fled, 
And  man's  supremest  joy  with  Song  was  dead. 

I  read  and  pondered,  and  a  protest  sprang 
Out  of  my  heart  to  what  the  poet  sang  : 
To  give  it  point,  I  fashioned  it  to  rhyme, 
Dumb  to  the  world  till  some  more  fitting  time 
Should,  haply,  lend  its  measures  force  to  prove 
That  Song  and  Science  still  must  fall  in  love. 
If  I  misdeem  that  timely  hour  is  here, 
Condone  my  error  for  my  ready  tear. 


SCIENCE    AND    SONG    NOT    DIVORCED. 
(A    PROTEST.) 

No,  no!  good  doctor,  in  "The  Coming  Era" 
(Which  makes  of  your  thin  book  the  twen 
tieth  part) 


94  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

Your  apprehension  chases  a  chimera,  — 

The  Muse  from  her  sweet   bowers  will    not 
depart. 

Nor  will  she  ever  doff  her  lovely  raiment, 
Except  to  change  its  fashion,  as  do  we, 

With  now  and  then,  perchance,  an  eye  to  pay 
ment 
Of  costs  she  never  thought  of  formerly. 

A  change  will  come,  alone,  upon  her  topics, 
And  not,  as  you  portend,  upon  her  modes. 

You'll  have  to  rank,  I  fear,  with  the  myopics, 
Foreseeing  dearth  of  epics  and  of  odes. 

She'll   deal,  as   heretofore,    in   songs  and  son 
nets  : 

But  for  all  lovers  she  will  rainbows  choose  ; 
For  maidens'   eyes    and    curls,    and    "loves    of 

bonnets," 

Night-stars   and   clouds    and    sea-foam    caps 
she'll  use. 


SCIENCE  AND  SONG  NOT  DIVORCED.      95 

She'll  wreathe  her  garlands  round  the  dryest 
fossil, 

Adorn  with  madrigals  the  trilobite  ; 
The  tiniest  monad  and  the  moose  colossal, 

A  sonnet  this,  an  epic  that,  indite. 

The  lover  and  the  maiden  on  the  sofa, 

The  Muse's  spell  will  feel  and  understand  ; 

And,  as  on  well-marked  map  of  old  Fraunho- 

fer,« 
He'll  read  the  mystic  lines  upon  —  her  hand. 

For  frolicsome  Thalia  there'll  yet  be  chances 
To  fling  her  idyls  and  her  canzones  forth  : 

She'll  weave  them  of  the  weird  electric  dances 
That  flash  and  flicker  in  the  frigid  North. 

In  her  deft  hands  your  cruel  vivisection, 

The  myths  of  Greece  and   Rome   she'll   re 
create  ; 

Their  genii  and  giants  find  a  resurrection 
In  Science  feats  and  forces  wondrous  great. 


96  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

And  since  she's  ever  done  her  best  in  fiction, 
And  fables  found  the  fittest  for  her  tongue, 

There's  ample  verge  for  her  delicious  diction, 
In  Science  dreams  and  fantasies  unsung. 

Room  there  for  odes  to  celebrate  Bathybius, 
And  render  Huxley  famous  for  all  time,46 

Who  fathered  life,  terrestrial  and  amphibious, 
On  the  gray  ooze  dredged  from  the  deep-sea 
slime. 

And  Darwin's  creed,  that  makes  men  tailless 

monkeys,47 

May  well  supply  the  comic  bard  with  themes  ; 
Though,  had  he  set  its  bounds  at  human  flun 
kies, 
'Twere  plausible  as  now  impossible  it  seems. 

There's  not  a  flower  in  all  the  old  anthologies 

That  will  not  bloom  for  Science,  like  the  rose  ; 
And  modern  notes  they'll  discount,  sans  apolo 
gies, 

On  other   banks  than   where  the  wild   time 
grows.48 


SCIENCE  AND  SONG  NOT  DIVORCED.      97 

And  let  me  quote  to  purpose,  your  example, 
Which    gives    us    Science    in    the   guise    of 
song : 

"The  Coming  Era  "  serves  me  for  a  sample, 
Whose  perfect  verse  veils  a  prophetic  wrong. 

But  pardon  me,  my  master  in  all  metres, 
I  read  again  your  rhyrnings,  and  —  behold  ! 

In  soul  and  sound  alike  they  grow  completer, 
As  I  discern  the  riddle  they  infold. 

The  creed  I  chide,  you  give,  I  see,  no  credence, 
But  song  forever  shrine  in  happy  hearts  ; 

And  with  your  fancied  heresy's  decedence 
My  every  dissonance  with  you  departs.49 

Beyond  the  Iron  Gate  bid  snows  defiance, 
And  melt  them  with  the  sun  of  genial  song ; 

Blend  the  rare  charms  of  Poesy  and  Science, 
And   Heaven   your    singing   pilgrimage   pro 
long. 


98  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 


THE   OUTLOOK   OF   THE    HOUR. 

I    PAUSE,    while    Science    wooes    me    yet    to 

sing 

Her  far  adventurous  flights  on  sunward  wing ; 
Her  patient  quests  where  Arctic  horrors  bar 
The     daring     glance     that     searches    farthest 

star ; 

Her  scrutiny  in  clefts  and  caverns  deep, 
Where  fabled  gnomes  o'er  treasures  lie  asleep, 
But  where  her  keen  interpreter  translates 
Moses'  old  history  inscribed  on  slates. 
Above,  below,  within,  without  our  globe, 
Where   lies    the    realm   her  cunning  does    not 

probe, 

Or,  baffled  or  betrayed  by  first  false  view, 
With  final  triumph  looks  the  illusion  through  ? 


THE   OUTLOOK  OF   THE   HOUR.  99 

These  unsung  toils  and  trophies  of  her  line 

I  drop  reluctant,  and  of  need,  from  mine  ; 

For  with  his  song  her  round  of  fame  to  fill, 

Till  Earth's  last  hour,  one  must  be  singing  still. 

Not  half  the  priests  who  in  the  temple  stand, 

Builded  in  beauty  by  the  Eternal  Hand, 

Deny  or  doubt  the  revelation  there, 

One  with  the  truth  God's  testaments  declare  ;  5° 

And  fewer  still  the  unbelievers  count, 

As    purer   knowledge    flows    from    Learning's 

fount. 

The  question  more  to  moral  issues  tends, 
Till  in  the  spiritual  the  material  ends. 
Not  yet  the  victory  unto  Truth  belongs, 
Yet  Truth,  who  cannot   speak  with    dissonant 

tongues, 

Who  seeks  with  honest,  humble,  earnest  soul, 
Is  on  the  path  to  her  exalted  goal. 
The  outlook  of  the  hour  the  hope  sustains 
That    Christian    faith    o'er    doubting    Science 

gains. 


100  SCIENCE   IN  SONG 

The  age  is  rife  with  theories,  old  and  new  ; 
And  false  philosophies  outrun  the  true, 
But  run  so  fast,  they  stumble  on  the  course, 
And  fling  their  riders  like  an  ill-trained  horse. 
The  pride  of  human  reason  sought  to  find 
In  lifeless  mud  the  potency  of  mind, 
And  made  of  slime,  that  sleeps  in  nether  sea, 
Source  of  all  life,  past,  present,  and  to  be. 
Bathybius  soared  to  Haeckel's  credulous  eye, 
The  germ  of  life,  and  grave  of  Deity, 
Till  in  the  subtle  tube  the  oozy  slime 
Dwindled  to  gypsum  from  its  rank  sublime  ; 5' 
And  bioplasms,  with  that  new  god,  fell 
Down  to  the  plane  of  a  "primordial  —  sell." 

To-day  there  are  whose  wit  and  wisdom  shape 

Our  manhood  to  the  model  of  the  ape,52 

And  make  our  Newtons  and  our  Shakspeares 

fail 

Of  being  monkeys  that  they  lack —  a  tail. 
To  such  philosophers  who  would  not  grant 
All  length  of  tail  their  Simian  theories  want, 


THE   OUTLOOK  OF   THE  HOUR.  IOI 

And  let  their  Orang  origin  be  plain, 

By  tails,  and  half  the  weight  of  human  brain.53 

Yet,  ere  these  numbers  into  silence  sink, 
I  crave  some  lingering  moments  on  its  brink 
To   mark   the   drift    of   Science -thought,    and 

speech, 

As  these  o'er  continents  and  convictions  reach. 
A  lively  war,  in  which  much  ink  is  shed, 
With  heavy  arguments  in  lieu  of  lead, 
Some  scientists  and  theologians  wage, 
And  hottest  o'er  the  old  Mosaic  page, 
While  furious  skirmishers  employ  their  pens 
Too  oft  with  immaterial  "whys  "  and  "  whens." 
The  strife,  prolonged  to-day,  yet  slacker  grows, 
Though  here  and  there  fall  thick  and  stalwart 

blows. 

The  pity  of  this  Punic  war  of  words 
Is  that  the  flourish  of  their  paper  swords 
The  combatants  to  empty  issues  leads, 
And     makes     the     fight    'twixt    theories     and 

creeds. 


IO2  SCIENCE   IN  SONG. 

These,  and  vagaries  like  them  by  the  score, 
Old  fables,  and  new-dressed  ones  seen  before, 
Are  man's  vain  dreams  of  truth  all  life  about, 
In  earth  and  sea  and  self,  with  God  left  out ; 
Whom    though    the    lens   and    prism    may  not 

reveal, 
Beyond   their   scope    through   faith    we   know 

and  feel. 

And  Science,  with  this  inward,  upward  sight, 
Sees  all  the  Cosmos  bathed  in  Heaven's  own 

light. 

New  radiance  floods  the  old  Mosaic  page, 
Bent  backward  from  our  geologic  age  ; 
And  the  deep  problems  of  the  Book  of  Job  54 
Our  modern  knowledge  shows  us  how  to  probe, 
Until  the  BIBLE  may  of  Cosmos  be  — 
Its  oldest  chronicle  and  newest  key. 

Men  talk  profoundly  of  the  reign  of  law 
That  governs  life  and  change  without  a  flaw, 
By  whose  decrees  stars  burn  and  planets  roll. 
The  earth  revolves,  the  needle  seeks  the  pole  ; 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  HOUR.     1 03 

The  rainbow  bends  its  beauty  on  the  cloud  ; 
The  pestilence  for  thousands  weaves  its  shroud  ; 
The  shrinking  globe  its  granite  girdle  breaks, 
Seas    heave    with    terror,  and    the    broad    land 

shakes ; 

The  tempest  breaks  the  gallant  heart  of  oak  ; 
The  livid  lightning  darts  its  vengeful  stroke  ; 
The  rain,  the  drought,  harvest  and  want,  take 

turn, 
The    bitter   blasts    that   freeze,    the    suns    that 

burn,  — 
These  and    the    unsummed    haps  of   time    and 

man 

Are  but  the  outcome,  all,  of  Nature's  plan. 
Let  us  not  cavil  for  an  empty  name  : 
This  creed  and  ours  may  fuse  into  the  same. 
If  for  its  law  we  the  law-giver  see, 
The  creed  sees  only  not  so  far  as  we.55 
Pondering  this  problem  in  my  mind  erewhile, 
Some  taskless  twilight  moments  to  beguile, 
I  yielded  to  a  grave  poetic  spell, 
And  from  my  mood  evolved  — 


IO4          SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 
MY  ORACLE. 

Unerring  law,  that  swings  the  earth  around, 
And    whirls    the    planets    in    their   lustrous 
spheres, 

Oh,  tell  me  where  the  master-key  is  found, 
That  winds  the  mighty  horologe  of  years  ! 

On  the  blue  heaven's  resplendent  dial  glow, 
In  grand  procession,  countless  suns  and  stars; 

And  we  who  watch  and  wonder  here  below, 
StoOfi^ 

Fret  with  vain  quest  behind  our  finite  bars. 

The  rhythmic  anthems  of  the  circling  choirs, 
Which  fervent  souls  in  happy  trances  hear, 

To  duller  sense  are  but  material  fires, 

That  burn  with  splendor,  but  to  disappear. 

By  whose  behest  wert  thou,  unerring  Law, 
Bidden  to  turn  the  tireless  wheels  of  time, 

Play  Nature's  marvellous  drama  without  flaw, 
And    chide    man's    sordidness  with  her  sub 
lime  ? 


MY  ORACLE.  105 

Art  thou,  I  pray,  a  self-existent  power, 

Though    blind  and    dumb,  yet    animate   and 
vast  ? 

And  dost  thou  own  to  none  thy  wondrous  dower 
Of  life  and  force  upon  all  being  cast  ? 

VfUUi 

Thou  canst  not  answer  me,  for  thou  art  dumb, 

And  yet  thy  dumbness  shall  my  conscience 

teach  ; 

Out  from  thy  deep  primordial  glooms  shall  come 
A  fire  to  fuse  thy  silence  into  speech. 

If  thou  couldst  make  and  move  the  world  and 
men, 

I  could  not  wiser  than  my  Maker  be  ; 
Thou  canst  not  tell  me  what  I  ask :  so,  then, 

At  thy  mute  shrine  I  will  not  bend  the  knee. 

Thou  art,  I  think,  thyself  my  very  quest, 

The  master-key  that  winds  the  clock  of  time ; 

I  welcome  to  my  heart  a  sacred  guest, 

Who  lifts  for  me  the  veil  from  truth  sublime. 


106  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Sweet  Faith!  I  hear  thee,  and  my  soul  believes 

In  one  creating,  uncreated  Lord  ; 
And  with  thy  creed  my  happy  heart  receives, 

In  rest  from  wildering  doubts,  its  high  reward. 

My  Lord,  my  God,  who  heaven  and  earth  hast 
made, 

I  mark  thy  hand  upon  unerring  law  ; 
Now  move  the  worlds  in  beauty's  robe  arrayed, 

And  from  thy  will  and  word  their  order  draw. 

No  more  my  soul  shall  Doubt's  disquiet  know, 
Nor  grope  in  glooms  which  Pride  and  Reason 

breed  ; 
No  more  to  Earth's  vain  oracles  I'll  go, 

Since  Faith  to  God  my  thankful  soul    doth 
lead. 

L'ENVOI. 

Science  in  Song !     Ah,  if  the  song  be  meet, 
Then  Song  and  Science  make  a  chord  complete. 
Not  mine  the  skill  this  miracle  to  reach, 
And  wisdom  in  divinest  numbers  teach. 


L"  EN  VOL  107 

If  less  my  aim,  'tis  only  that  I  know 

How  few  the  founts  whence  the  rich  measures 

flow, 

Their  melodies  with  Nature's  tongues  to  chime, 
And  with  her  Science  make  the  song  sublime. 

When  God  His  high  creative  power  displayed, 
And  Earth's  foundation-stones  on  nothing  laid, 
Nature's  first  anthem  on  the  air  was  flung, 
As  all  the  morning  stars  together  sung ; 5& 
And  shouts  of  joy  for  chorus  rang  abroad 
From  the  glad  bosoms  of  the  sons  of  God. 

All  charms  of  Nature  that  the  poet  feels, 
Whose  loftiest  ode  no  glimpse  of  God  reveals, 
Are  barren  yet  of  rapture  to  inspire 
His  soul  and  song  with  Art's  supremest  fire. 
And   boastful    Science,    which    the    space-void 

sweeps, 

But  finds  no  Primal  Wisdom  in  its  deeps, 
And  hears  no  voice  above  the  thunder's  roar, 
Has  need  its  own  murk  mazes  to  explore, 


IO8  SCIENCE  IN  SONG. 

Lest  fatal,  more  than  ignorance,  they  betray 
The  proud  truth-seeker  into  Error's  way. 
In  chilling  Doubt's,  and  Unbelief's,  defiance, 
I  make  this  humble  inscript  of 

MY  SCIENCE. 

Should  Science  tell  me  that  my  faith  in  God 
Is  vain,  since  God  is  not,  nor  any  need 
Of  Him,  then  would  I  banish  from  my  creed 
All  Science,  and  take  lessons  from  the  clod, — 
Which  dumb  and   dead,  like    Aaron's    budded 

rod, 

Blooms  yet,  by  miracle,  to  flowery  mead, 
Where  plain,  as  in  the  Holy  Book,  I  read 
God's  power  and  wisdom  painted  on  the  sod. 
Not  thus  has  Science  taught  my  grateful  soul, 
By  starry  gleam,  or  secret  cell  explored, 
Nor  bid  me  dash  my  foot  against  a  stone  : 
She  buoys  my  faith  on  all  the  tides  that  roll, 
And  tells  me,  if  to  loftier  heights  I  soared, 
In  farthest  skies,  I  should  find  God  alone. 


NOTES. 


NOTE  i,  p.  i. 
"  Not  selfish  Ime  to  serve,  or  vengeful  hate." 

The  invention  of  "infernal  machines,''  charged  with  such 
destructive  explosives  as  nitro-glycerine  and  dynamite,  which, 
in  the  hands  oi  reckless  adventurers  and  anarchists,  undoubt 
edly  exhibit  "vengeful  hate,"  even  as  the  application  of  sci 
entific  principles  in  the  dangerous  adulterations  of  foods, 
medicines,  and  other  substances,  affords  proofs  of  "selfish 
love  '•  on  the  part  of  all  who  pursue,  or  seek  profit  from,  such 
practices.  Nor  is  it  entirely  true,  perhaps,  that  science  has 
not  contributed  to  the  sating  of  "  regal  pride "  or  "  warlike 
greed "  in  new  devices  for  war  and  conquest.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  the  application  of  scientific  con 
trivances  to  the  arts  and  industries  affords,  equally  with  the 
means  of  malicious  and  mischievous  processes,  easy  methods 
for  their  detection  and  defeat.  There  is,  therefore,  "no  man 
tling  stain  "  upon  the  aims  and  achievements  of  science.  These 
are  always  honorable  and  useful,  and  all  dishonor  and  abuse 

109 


HO  NOTES. 

of  them  attach  only  to  the  evil  passions  and  greeds  of  evil 
men. 

NOTE  2,  p.  2. 
"  And  binds  lone  Neptune  to  the  Sun's  control" 

The  loneliness  of  Neptune  in  the  solar  system  can  be  appre 
ciated  by  the  reader,  only  as  he  realizes  that  its  distance  from 
the  sun  is  2,862,0x30,000  miles,  or  about  thirty-one  times  that 
of  our  own  planet.  The  marvel  of  science,  in  the  discovery 
of  this  remote  orb,  lies  in  the  manner  of  that  discovery.  This 
was  at  first  conjectural,  and  grew  out  of  perturbations  and 
irregularities  observed  in  the  movements  of  Uranus,  the  then 
recognized  outermost  sentry  of  the  vast  solar  camp,  —  irregu 
larities  which  could  not  be  referred  to  any  cause  -within  Us 
orbit.  Early  in  the  history  of  this  problem,  the  existence  of  a 
planet  outside  of  Uranus  was  suspected  by  Hansen  and  other 
astronomers.  In  1841  an  English  savant,  Professor  Adams, 
and  M.  Leverrier,  an  eminent  French  astronomer,  began  a 
mathematical  search  for  its  place  in  the  sky.  In  1846  they 
fixed  upon  a  point  within  one  degree  of  each  other's  calcula 
tion  ;  and  on  the  very  night  of  the  day  upon  which  their 
researches  were  made  known  in  Berlin,  Dr.  Galle  of  the 
observatory  there,  by  the  aid  of  the  Berlin  star-maps  (not  then 
in  the  hands  of  the  English  astronomers),  found  the  "suspect" 
just  where  it  was  supposed  to  be  ;  and  a  grand  trophy  of  science 
was  achieved,  which  fully  justifies  Arago's  characterization  of 
it  as  "one  of  the  most  brilliant  manifestations  of  the  exacti 
tude  of  the  system  of  modern  astronomy." 


NOTES.  Ill 

NOTE  3,  p.  2. 
"  The  mad  pulsations  of  the  violet  ray." 

Estimating  the  velocity  of  light  in  round  numbers  at  190,- 
ooo  miles  a  second,  and  the  wave-length,  or  pulse,  of  the  violet 
ray  to  be  so  short  that  it  requires  64,631  of  such  pulsations  to 
make  up  an  inch,  the  calculation  for  the  whole  distance  trav 
elled  by  the  violet  ray  from  the  sun  to  the  eye  gives  the  amaz 
ing  number  of  pulsations  as  seven  hundred  and  eighty-nine 
millions  of  millions. 

NOTE  4,  p.  2. 
"  Till  metals  flash  like  suns  in  their  profounds." 

The  temperature  of  the  red  ray  beyond  its  bound  in  the 
visible  spectrum,  or  color-band,  is  so  intense  that  platinum-foil 
is  instantly  raised  to  brilliant  incandescence,  when  exposed 
to  it  in  the  focus  of  the  electric  beam,  from  which  all  the 
light  is  cut  off  by  passing  it  through  a  solution  of  iodine  in 
the  bi-sulphide  of  carbon. 

NOTE  5,  p.  2. 
"  Plucks  the  weird  force  the  chemic  page  that  prints" 

The  violet  end  of  the  visible  spectrum  manifests  low  tem 
perature,  but  high  actinism,  or  chemical  power ;  and  violet- 
tinted  photographs  have  been  taken  in  the  ultra-violet  and 
therefore  invisible  region  of  the  spectrum  of  the  sun,  and  of 
the  electric  light.  This  result  is  due  to  the  fluorescent  power 
of  certain  prepared  surfaces. 


112  NOTES. 

NOTE  6,  p.  2. 
"  With  blazing  breath  they  answer,  '  Here  we  are ! '  " 

"  Canst  thou  send  lightnings,  that  they  may  go,  and  say  unto 
thee,  Here  we  are?"  —  JOB  xxxviii.  35. 

NOTE  7,  p.  3. 
"  Or  carbon  candles,  a  la  Jablochkoff." 

One  of  the  earliest  forms  of  the  practical  electrical  light, 
and  largely  used  in  Paris,  was  the  so-called  "  Jablochkoff 
candle,"  which  consists  of  two  parallel  rods  of  prepared  car 
bon,  set  upright,  and  separated  by  a  slender  layer  of  some 
ceramic  substance,  which,  while  it  keeps  the  carbon  points  at 
uniform  distance  —  one  of  the  conditions  of  steady  light  —  yet 
fuses  away  in  the  electric  arc. 

NOTE  8,  p.  4. 
"  A  dollar  for  a  thousand  cubic  feet." 

The  "gas-men"  of  Chicago  have  recently  reduced  the  price 
of  gas  practically  to  this  low  rate ;  and,  it  our  wide  country 
affords  as  yet  no  other  instance  of  such  cheapness,  it  is 
equalled,  and  indeed  exceeded,  by  the  low  price  of  gas  in 
London. 

NOTE  9,  p.  5. 
"  And  swaying  to  and  fro,  like  Bracken  ivraith" 

The  spectre  of  the  "  Brocken  "  is  a  well-known  phenomenon, 
in  which  images  of  persons  standing  on  the  summit  of  a  lofty 


NOTES.  113 

peak  of  the  Hartz  Mountains  (in  Hanover)  are  seen,  as  if  upon 
opposite  and  distant  heights,  imitating  exactly  the  motions 
made  by  them.  The  effect  depends  upon  atmospheric  condi 
tions, —  mists  or  fleecy  clouds,  —  which  at  morning  or  evening 
sometimes  produce  gigantic  shadows  of  beholders. 


•NOTE  10,  p.  6. 

"  I  drew  in  a  homely  tea-kettle 

The  first  storied  gasp  of  my  breath." 

The  familiar  story  that  JAMES  WATT  (whose  improvement  of 
the  steam-engine  in  its  early  stages  almost  entitles  him  to  be 
called  its  inventor)  was  led,  as  a  boy,  to  the  study  of  the  force 
of  steam  by  seeing  and  experimenting  with  the  lid  of  a  tea 
kettle  "  bobbing  up  and  down  "  upon  the  "  hob  "  at  the  house 
of  his  aunt  in  Glasgow,  where  he  was  visiting  in  1750,  is  the 
author's  somewhat  meagre  warrant  for  this  couplet,  which, 
however,  may  well  help  to  perpetuate  a  possible  and  pretty 
legend. 

NOTE  u,  p.  6. 

"  The  mightiest  blmvs  of  Thorns  hammer 
I  help  his  right  arm  to  excel." 

THOR  was  the  war-god  of  the  Scandinavian  mythology. 
His  mace,  or  mighty  hammer,  with  which,  it  was  said,  he  could 
crush  mountains,  was  called  Mjollner. 


1 14  NOTES. 

NOTE  12,  p.  12. 
"  That  crowns  me  Electron  the  Bright" 

Electron  is  the  Greek  word  for  amber,  in  which  substance 
attractive  and  repulsive  power  were  first  observed ;  and  this 
brilliant  substance  has  given  its  name  both  to  electric  force 
and  to  the  science  which  describes  its  phenomena  and  its  history. 

NOTE  13,  p.  13. 

"  Beheld  me  through  lattice  of  amber, 
Yet  little  he  learned  of  me  so." 

About  six  hundred  years  B.C.,  Thales  of  Miletus,  one  of 
the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece,  having  rubbed  a  piece  of  amber 
with  a  silk  handkerchief,  and  laid  it  upon  a  table,  was  startled 
at  seeing  light  substances,  as  fragments  of  pith  or  papyrus, 
instantly  attach  themselves  to  it.  On  taking  it  up  to  examine 
the  phenomenon  closely,  the  effect  ceased,  but  was  easily  re 
newed  when  again  he  rubbed  the  amber. 

NOTE  14,  p.  13. 
"  Unstoried  for  eras  I  stand" 

For  nearly  twenty-three  centuries  after  Thales  made  his 
observation  on  the  curious  electric  property  of  amber,  little 
more  of  importance  was  added  to  this  germinal  fact  in  the 
development  of  electrical  phenomena  than  the  discovery  that 
various  other  substances,  especially  tourmaline  and  the  gems, 
were  susceptible  of  like  excitation. 


NOTES.  115 

NOTE  15,  p.  13. 

"  /  ran,  in  the  trance  of  my  wonder, 

Down  the  cord  of  a  •venturous  kite.1" 

The  experiment  of  Benjamin  Franklin  in  drawing  the  light 
ning  from  a  storm-cloud  along  the  string  of  a  rudely  con 
structed  kite,  which  he  elevated  in  June,  1752,  into  the  lowering 
atmosphere  over  the  Philadelphia  Common,  is  too  well  known 
to  justify  more  than  this  simple  reference  to  it.  It  is  claimed 
that  the  process  was  actually  performed  by  M.  Dalibard  at 
Marly,  in  France,  some  weeks  earlier  than  Franklin  accom 
plished  it.  But,  if  so,  the  French  electrician  was  guided  to  his 
fortunate  experiment  and  success  by  a  letter  of  the  American 
philosopher,  addressed  to  Mr.  Peter  Collinson  of  London, 
suggesting  to  the  English  scientists  this  simple  means  of  test 
ing  a  bold  hypothesis ;  which  letter  was  translated  and  pub 
lished  in  a  Paris  science  journal,  and  thus  made  known  to  the 
Marly  experimenter.  If  he  had  not  played  with  Franklin's 
kite,  as  the  men  of  Timnath  in  sacred  legend  are  said  to  have 
ploughed  with  Samson's  heifer,  before  they  could  solve  Sam 
son's  riddle,  Dalibard  would  not  have  found  out  the  great 
electric  riddle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

NOTE  16,  p.  14. 

"  The  touch  of  King  Midas  the  Golden 
Prefigured  my  work  in  the  cell.'" 

The  fable  of  the  Phrygian  king,  Midas,  represents  him  as 
rewarded  for  hospitality  to  the  god  Silenus  by  the  grant  of  his 


Il6  NOTES. 

petition  that  his  touch  should  transmute  every  thing  into  gold. 
When  it  thus  transformed  his  very  food  into  the  precious  but 
indigestible  metal,  he  prayed  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  fatal 
power.  Many  curious  legends  hang  around  the  story  of  Midas, 
but  only  with  the  primal  tale  is  this  note  concerned.  In  the 
process  of  electro-plating,  the  base  metals  and  other  substances, 
even  forms  of  wood  and  clay,  are  rapidly  coated  with  gold,  or 
silver,  or  nickel,  which  metals  are  deposited  from  the  solutions 
of  some  of  their  salts  contained  in  the  cells.  The  object  to  be 
plated  is  connected  with  the  negative  pole  of  the  battery;  and 
to  the  other  pole  is  attached  a  plate  of  whatever  metal  is  to  be 
thrown  down,  and  this  dissolves  as  rapidly  as  its  salt  in  solution 
yields  its  metal  to  the  surface  to  be  plated. 


NOTE  17,  p.  16. 
"  In  the  great  glass  that  from  fair   Tulse  HilPs  dome.'1'1 

Tulse  Hill  is  a  pretty  suburb  in  the  south-west  of  London, 
and  in  close  proximity  to  Dulwich.  On  its  crest  is  the  unpre 
tentious  residence  of  Dr.  William  Huggins,  the  astronomer 
and  spectroscopist,  whose  researches  in  stellar  and  cometic 
spectroscopy  are  world-renowned.  At  the  time  of  the  author's 
enjoyment  of  his  courtesy,  he  was  using,  in  connection  with 
his  fine  equatorial  telescope,  a  very  powerful  and  many-prismed 
spectroscope  belonging  to  Mr.  Gassiot,  which  divided  the 
sodium  line  to  an  apparent  half-inch,  and  disclosed  a  broad 
nickel  line  between  its  twin-boundaries. 


NOTES.  117 

NOTE  18,  p.  18. 

"  With  rapture  for  the  pocfs  eye" 
Wordsworth  says  in  familiar  lines,  —    . 

"  My  heart  leaps  up  when  I  behold 

A  rainbow  in  the  sky  : 
So  was  it  when  my  life  began, 
So  is  it  now  I  am  a  man, 
So  be  it  when  I  shall  grow  old, 
Or  let  me  die." 

And  Campbell,  in  his  "  Ode  to  the  Rainbow,"  says,  — 

"  Triumphal  arch  that  fill'st  the  sky 

When  storms  prepare  to  part, 
I  ask  not  proud  Philosophy 

To  tell  me  what  thou  art ; 
Still  seem,  as  to  my  childhood's  sight, 

A  midway  station  given, 
For  happy  spirits  to  alight 

Betwixt  the  earth  and  heaven." 

NOTE  19,  p.  19. 

"And  made  the  arrcnvy  light-beam  tell 
The  mystery  of  its  mould" 

It  was  in  the  year  1666  that  Sir  Isaac  Newton  made  his 
memorable  experiment  with  a  triangular  piece  of  flint  glass, 
upon  one  of  the  sides  of  which  he  received  in  a  darkened 
room,  through  a  small  round  hole  in  the  window-shutter,  a 
slender  beam  of  light.  Passing  through  the  prism,  it  fell  upon 


Il8  NOTES. 

the  opposite  wall  in  a  patch  or  band  of  seven  colors,  since 
known  as  the  solar  spectrum,  and  these  colors  arranged  as  in 
the  rainbow.  It  was  thus  that  the  composite  character  of 
white  light  was  made  known  to  man. 

NOTE  20,  p.  20. 

"  When  some  keen  glance  the  hidden  way 
Into  its  maze  divines." 

In  the  year  1814  this  was  accomplished  by  Joseph  von 
Fraunhofer,  an  optician  of  Munich,  who,  combining  the  prism 
with  the  lenses  of  the  telescope,  invented  the  spectroscope. 

NOTE  21,  p.  22. 
"  This  one  of  Magnes  holds  the  foremost  place." 

Excepting,  perhaps,  the  one  found  in  the  "  Arabian  Nights' 
Entertainments"  (third  calendar),  in  which  is  the  legend  of  a 
magnetic  mountain  which  drew  out  all  the  nails  of  any  ship 
that  approached  within  its  influence.  "The  ship  in  which 
Prince  Agib  sailed  fell  to  pieces  when  wind-driven  towards  it." 

NOTE  22,  p.  24. 
"  For  ages  the  vague  veil  of  mystery." 

From  the  observation  of  the  electric  property  of  amber  by 
Thales  far  into  the  Christian  era,  no  important  electrical  dis 
covery  is  noted,  and  until  1730  A.D.  no  scientific  generalization 
was  made. 


NOTES.'  119 

NOTE  23,  p.  25. 
"  O  fatal  halt,  that  sevenscore  years  held  back ! " 

The  interval  between  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  discovery  of  the 
solar  spectrum  in  1666,  and  the  perfection  of  his  great  work 
in  Fraunhofer's  observation  of  the  famous  dark  lines  in  1814, 
was  nearly  a  century  and  a  half.  About  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  however,  the  "  lines  "  were  probably  seen 
by  Dr.  Wollaston,  though  not  with  discrimination  enough  to 
make  their  discovery  certain. 

NOTE  24,  p.  26. 
"  Two  centuries  late  we  have  it,  all  the  same" 

In  the  foregoing  note  the  actual  interval  between  the  experi 
ment  of  Newton,  which  resulted  in  only  a  pure  spectrum,  and 
that  of  Fraunhofer,  which  produced  a  striated  spectrum,  is 
more  precisely  stated.  The  "  two  centuries  "  may  be  counted 
from  the  seventeenth  of  Newton's  great  work,  to  the  nine 
teenth  of  our  broad  realization  of  the  results  which  he  only 
inaugurated. 

NOTE  25,  p.  28. 
"  He  sailed  in  fear  the  narrowest  sea." 

The  introduction  of  the  mariner's  compass  into  Europe 
dates  back  hardly  six  centuries,  prior  to  which  period,  if  the 
directive  property  of  the  magnet  was  known  at  all,  it  was  not 
associated  with  sailing  the  seas.  Some  poet,  referring  to  that 
period,  says,  — 


I2O  NOTES. 

"  Rude  as  their  ships  was  navigation  then, 

No  useful  compass  or  meridian  known  ; 
Coasting,  they  kept  the  land  within  their  ken, 

And  knew  no  north,  save  when  the  pole-star  shone." 

The  name  of  Flavio  Gioia,  of  Amalfi,  near  Naples,  is  gener 
ally  associated  with  the  construction  of  the  box-compass  and 
the  device  of  the  fleur-de-lis,  which  indicated  the  north. 

NOTE  26,  p.  40. 
"As  lustrous  Hydrogenium" 

The  metallic  nature  of  hydrogen  has  been  long  suspected 
by  chemists  from  its  curious  re-action  with  finely  divided  plati 
num,  or  platinum-foil,  producing  the  incandescence  of  the 
metal,  and  the  ignition  of  the  gas.  Palladium  absorbs  this  gas 
very  largely,  and  forms  with  it  a  decided  alloy.  Out  of  such 
an  alloy  the  Count  Rumford  medal  of  the  British  association 
of  scientists,  at  the  Brighton  meeting  in  1872,  was  struck, 
and  determined  approximately  the  metalline  character  of  this 
the  lightest  of  all  bodies,  and  the  subtlest  of  the  gases. 

NOTE  27,  p.  44. 
"  Decomposed  in  my  volcanic  thrill." 

The  absence  of  lines  in  the  spectrum  of  the  sun,  which,  if 
present,  would  indicate  the  existence  on  that  orb  of  substances, 
which,  abounding  in  our  planet,  we  might  reasonably  suppose 
would  be  found  in  the  sun,  may  be  accounted  for  by  their 
probable  reduction  by  the  fierce  solar  heat  into  lower  and 


NOTES.  121 

simpler  forms,  — an  hypothesis  which  may  hereafter  find  some 
color  of  evidence  by  the  eventual  decomposition  of  supposed 
earthly  elemental  forms  of  matter. 

NOTE  28,  p.  44. 

"  To  flood  them  with  beauty  and  bloom." 
So  very  insignificant  is  the  moiety  of  the  heat-force  of  the 
sun  which  our  earth  receives,  that  it  is  estimated  at  only  the 
one-half  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  millionth  fart.  If 
there  were  duplicated  earths  strung  closely  together  upon  the 
earth's  orbit  as  a  cord,  the  number  would  reach  75,000;  and  all 
these,  vivified  and  warmed  by  the  sun  equally  with  our  globe, 
would  still  not  require  a  quantum  of  his  heat  in  excess  of  the 
TJ-iTnr  part. 

NOTE  29,  p.  45. 

"  In  motion  I  end —  or  begin." 

The  new  philosophy  of  heat  as  developed  by  Joule,  Tyn- 
dall,  and 'other  physicists,  in  accordance  with  the  germinal 
suggestion  and  experiment  of  Count  Rumford  at  Munich  in 
1798,  completely  upsets  the  material  or  substantive  theory  so 
long  prevalent,  and  establishes  beyond  cavil  the  mechanical  or 
motion  nature  of  heat,  —  its  perpetual  energy  in  work,  —  origi 
nating  motion,  or  resulting  from  motion  for  new  activities. 

NOTE  30,  p.  46. 

"  Thy  name,  thyself,  dear  MITCHEL,  to  forget." 
Gen.  ORMSBY  MCKNIGHT  MITCHEL,  director  of  the  Dud 
ley  Observatory  at  Albany,  as  also  of  the  Cincinnati  Observa- 


122  NOTES. 

tory,  was  born  in  Kentucky,  July,  1809,  and  died  at  Beaufort, 
S.C.,  while  in  command  of  the  Federal  troops  there  in  1862. 
Distinguished  as  an  astronomer,  and  unsurpassed  as  a  lecturer, 
he  resigned  his  professional  positions  for  service  to  his  coun 
try,  and  died  from  fever,  widely  and  tenderly  lamented. 


NOTE  31,  p.  47. 
"As,  on  the  crest  of  Dudley  Hill,  I  came? 

The  Dudley  Observatory  at  Albany  occupies  a  beautiful 
elevation  overlooking  the  city,  and  at  only  a  very  short  dis 
tance  from  it.  Thither  it  was  the  author's  happiness  to  go 
frequently  in  the  years  immediately  following  its  equipment 
and  inauguration  through  the  beneficence  of  Mrs.  Blandina 
Dudley,  and  while  it  was  under  the  superintendence  of  Gen. 
Mitchel,  whose  fame  at  the  Cincinnati  Observatory  had  pre 
ceded  him  at  Albany. 

NOTE  32,  p.  49. 
"  Ha,  ha  !  now,  that's  a  joke,  — sidereal  time  !  " 

Between  the  solar  day  and  the  sidereal  day,  there  is  a  differ 
ence  of  length,  amounting  to  four  minutes,  resulting  from  the 
variation  in  the  intervals  occupied  by  the  sun  and  stars  in 
their  transit  from  meridian  to  meridian  again.  The  star-transit 
takes  just  four  minutes  less  time  than  the  average  passage  of 
the  sun ;  which  latter,  indeed,  is  variable,  while  that  of  the  star 
is  fixed  and  constant. 


NOTES.  •  123 

NOTE  33,  p.  51. 
"  The  stars  and  the  crystalline  sphere." 

"  The  music  of  the  spheres  "  was  a  conception  of  Pythago 
ras,  founded  upon  the  old  idea  that  every  planet  and  star 
was  fixed  upon  a  transparent  sphere,  which  revolved  about 
the  earth  with  definite  velocity.  The  multitudinous  motions 
of  these  crystal  spheres  were  the  source  of  the  imagined 
harmony. 

NOTE  34,  p.  52. 
"  /  sprang  from  a  Hollander's  brain." 

The  crude  conception  of  the  telescope  is  attributed  to  sev 
eral  persons,  two  of  whom  were  Hollanders.  One  of  them 
was  Lipperhey,  and  another  an  optician  named  Jansen.  It 
was  from  hearing  of  these  contrivances  that  Galileo  obtained 
his  impulse  to  imitate  them,  and  the  result  was  the  astronomi 
cal  telescope. 

NOTE  35,  p.  53. 
"  But  the  spots  on  the  sun  brought  shame." 

The  Aristotelian  philosophers  stoutly  denied  the  existence 
of  sun-spots  as  an  imputation  upon  the  power  and  purity  of 
what  they  conceived  to  be  "  the  eye  of  the  universe."  "  The 
sun,"  they  said,  "could  not  be  afflicted  with  ophthalmia;"  and 
when  Scheiner  entreated  his  priestly  father  to  look  through 
his  telescope,  and  see  for  himself  the  spots,  he  was  denied, 
and  gravely  bidden  to  interpret  what  he  thought  he  saw  into 
blemishes  in  his  glass,  or  defects  in  his  own  eyesight. 


124  NOTES. 

NOTE  36,  p.  54. 
"  And,  iv/ien  to  Rosse's  tube  it  swelled." 

The  largest  reflecting  telescope  in  the  world.  It  was  erected 
by  the  Earl  of  Rosse  on  his  estate  at  Birr  Castle,  Parsonstown, 
Ireland,  in  the  year  1845,  at  a  cost  of  sixty  thousand  dollars. 
This  remarkable  instrument  is  of  sixty  feet  focal  length.  Its 
speculum,  or  mirror,  is  six  feet  in  diameter,  and  weighs  four1 
tons. 

NOTE  37,  p.  61. 
"  In  charcoal  and  diamond  I'm  one  and  the  same." 

The  beautiful  gem  the  diamond  is  pure  carbon  in  a  crystal 
lized  state,  and  differs  from  charcoal  and  graphite  only  in  its 
structure.  When  a  bit  of  dry  charcoal  is  burned  in  oxygen 
gas,  the  sole  product  is  carbonic  acid  (dioxide  of  carbon) ; 
and  when  a  piece  of  boart  (a  clipping  of  a  diamond)  is  kin 
dled  to  incandescence  in  a  Bunsen-flame,  and  plunged  instantly 
into  a  jar  of  oxygen,  the  product  of  the  glowing  combustion 
is  only  carbonic-acid  gas.  The  dull  cinder  and  the  dazzling 
Koh-i-noor  are  twin-sisters. 


NOTE  38,  p.  65. 
"  By  happy  eyes  that  may  behold  the  Sun." 

"Truly  the  light  is  sweet,  and  a  pleasant  thing  it  is  for  the 
eyes  to  behold  the  sun."  —  ECCLES.  xi.  7. 


NOTES.  125 

NOTE  39,  p.  76. 
"  Of  time,  two  centuries,  as  light  earth-ward  flies." 

The  distance  of  Sirius  from  our  earth  is  computed  at  one 
hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  millions  of  miles ;  and,  the 
velocity  of  light  being  assumed  as  190,000  miles  a  second,  it 
follows  that  a  ray  of  light  from  "  the  dog-star "  would  take 
over  two  hundred  years  to  reach  our  planet.  The  actual  velo 
city  of  light,  however,  is  192,500  miles  a  second. 

NOTE  40,  p.  77. 
"  JEHOVAH  tells  the  number  of  their  flames." 

"  He  telleth  the  number  of  the  stars ;  he  calleth  them  all 
by  their  names."  —  Ps.  cxlvii.  4. 

NOTE  41,  p.  81. 

"  The  frightened  people  and  their  frightened  king" 
The  appearance  of  comets  in  the  olden  times,  and  before 
science  had  demonstrated  their  tenuous  and  even  filmy  nature, 
created  great  alarm  among  all  classes.  They  were  regarded  as 
portents  of  war  or  pestilence,  and  strange  rites  were  performed 
to  avert  the  dangers  they  threatened. 

NOTE  42,  p.  83. 

"  And  sung  to  that  as  hitherto  had  sung"  etc. 
The  "  Owed  to  Coggia's  Comet "  was  printed  at  the  time  of 
the   comet's  appearance    (with   now   slight  variation)   in  the 
"  Graphic." 


126  NOTES. 

NOTE  43,  p.  85. 
"  Whose  circuit  miles  reach  twenty  thousand  millions" 

There  is  a  little  poetical  license  here  for  the  euphony  of 
the  verse.  The  distance  of  Neptune  from  the  sun  being 
2,862,000,000  miles,  the  orbit  of  the  planet  must  be  about  six 
times  that  distance,  or  something  over  seventeen  thousand  mil 
lions  of  miles  ;  and  the  planet  requires  nearly  one  hundred  and 
sixty-five  of  our  years  to  accomplish  his  "  lonely  round." 

NOTE  44,  p.  92. 

"A  fair,  fresh  book  from  Holmes 's  facile  pen." 
"  The  Iron  Gate  and  Other  Poems,"  82  pp.,  published  by 
Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co.,  Boston. 

NOTE  45,  p.  95. 

"  And,  as  on  well-marked  map  of  old  Fraunhofer, 
He'll  read  the  mystic  lines  upon  —  her  hand." 
JOSEPH  VON  FRAUNHOFER,  an  optician  and  scientist  of 
Munich,  was  the  inventor  of  the  spectroscope,  and  the  first 
definite  observer  of  the  shadowy  lines  upon  the  spectrum  of 
the  sun  as  seen  through  the  new  instrument.  Of  these  lines, 
to  the  number  of  nearly  six  hundred,  he  made  a  map,  of  such 
accuracy  that  its  authenticity  has  never  been  called  in  ques 
tion  ;  and  while  his  six  hundred  lines  have  been  multiplied,  by 
later  observation  with  improved  instruments,  into  more  than 
six  thousand,  Fraunhofer's  map  has  not  suffered  the  displace 
ment  of  one  of  its  original  striations. 


NOTES.  127 

NOTE  46,  p.  96. 
"  And  render  Huxley  famous  for  all  time" 

Professor  Huxley  is  the  reputed  discoverer  of  the  gray  ooze, 
—  a  peculiar  slime  of  the  bottom  of  the  Adriatic  and  of  the  Bay 
of  Biscay,  which  he  and  Haeckel  pronounced  the  ultimate 
germ  of  all  animal  life.  When  the  British  Government  sent 
the  ship  "Challenger"  on  its  famous  mission  for  dredging  the 
deep  to  find  this  marvellous  bioplastic  deposit,  and  the  best 
chemists  and  microscopists  of  England  tested  it  with  crucible 
and  lens,  and  found  it  to  be  mere  debris  of  dead  organisms, 
Professor  Huxley  recanted  his  unfortunate  and  hasty  opinion 
about  it,  and  from  that  time  "  Bathybius  "  has  been  "  a  by 
word  and  a  hissing." 

NOTE  47,  p.  96. 
"And  Darwin's  creed,  that  makes  men  tailless  monkeys." 

The  modifications  of  Mr.  Darwin's  early  views  and  infer 
ences  concerning  the  ape-origin  of  man,  have  in  a  measure 
relieved  that  eminent  physicist  from  the  odium  of  teaching 
directly  that  all  men  are  descended  from  the  monkey.  His  phi 
losophy  of  life  was,  however,  unquestionably  based  upon  the 
assumed  absence  of  design  in  the  origin  of  species  or  in  the 
development  of  living  organisms.  By  this  theory,  the  highest 
intellectual  powers  of  man  have  been  evolved  "by  the  agency 
of  the  blind,  unconscious  laws  of  nature."  If  sciolists  have 
out-Darwined  their  teacher,  that  teacher  certainly  gave  them 
the  keynote  of  their  preposterous  conclusions. 


128  NOTES. 

NOTE  48,  p.  96. 
"  On  other  banks  than  where  the  wild  time  grows." 

The  reader  will  pardon  the  slight  liberty  the  author  has 
here  taken  with  the  familiar  words  of  Oberon,  in  "  Midsummer- 
Night's  Dream"  (act  ii.,  scene  ii.),  — 

"  1  know  a  bank  whereon  the  wild  thyme  blows, 
Where  ox-lips  and  the  nodding  violet  grows." 

NOTE  49,  p.  97. 

"My  every  dissonance  with  you  departs" 
It  is  needless,  perhaps,  to  quote  the  last  stanza  of  "The 
Coming  Era  "to  persuade  the  reader  that  the  Harvard  poet 
does  not  apprehend  the  divorce  of  Poetry  and  Science ;  but  its 
beauty  will  be  to  him  a  sufficient  apology  for  its  appearance 
here.  It  reads  thus  :  — 

"  And  so,  in  spite  of  all  that  Time  is  bringing, 

Treasures  of  truth,  and  miracles  of  art, 
Beauty  and  Love  will  keep  the  poet  singing  — 
And  song  still  live  —  the  science  of  the  heart." 

NOTE  50,  p.  99. 
"  One  with  the  truth  God's  testaments  declare." 

It  is  an  erroneous  idea,  however  prevalent,  that  the  ma 
jority  of  scientists  at  the  present  day  are  atheists,  or  even 
agnostics;  nor  would  it  be  a  difficult  task  to  show  conclu 
sively  that  the  numbers  of  these  classes  diminish  rather  than 


NOTES.  129 

NOTE  51,  p.  100. 

"  Till  in  the  subtle  tube  the  oozy  slime 
Dwindled  to  gypsum  from  its  rank  sublime" 

Dr.  ERNST  HAECKEL,  a  distinguished  naturalist,  and  pro 
fessor  in  the  University  of  Jena,  is  one  of  the  foremost  of  the 
atheistic  philosophers  of  Germany.  He  proclaimed  the  dis 
covery  by  Huxley,  of  Bathybius,  as  being  a  widely  extended 
sheet  of  protoplasm  covering  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  as 
containing  in  itself  the  essential  germ  of  all  animal  life. 
Bathybius  means  "  deep-sea  life,"  and  is  an  ooze  or  slime  lying 
upon  deep-sea  beds.  When  this  wonderful  substance  was 
fairly  subjected  to  the  microscope  and  to  chemical  tests,  it 
proved  to  be  sulphate  of  lime,  which,  from  its  solution,  crys 
tallized  into  gypsum. 

NOTE  52,  p.  100. 

"  To-day  there  are  whose  wit  and  wisdom  shape 
Our  manhood  to  the  model  of  the  ape." 

The  extreme  Darwinists  have  not  yet  all  succumbed  to  the 
force  of  logic  or  to  the  fire  of  wit,  directed  against  their  false 
philosophy  of  man's  origin.  Against  such  the  English  laureate 
utters  his  eloquent  protest  in  that  wonderful  poem,  "  In  Me- 
moriam  "  (cxx.  3), — 

"  Let  him,  the  wiser  man,  who  springs 
Hereafter  up  from  childhood,  shape 
His  actions  like  the  greater  ape  — 
But  I  was  born  for  other  things." 


130  NOTES, 

NOTE  53,  p.  101. 
"  By  tails,  and  half  the  weight  of  human  brain." 

Physiologists  and  anatomists  tell  us  that  the  capacity  of  the 
"  brain-pan  "  in  the  lowest  of  existing  men,  compared  with  that 
of  the  highest  "  man-ape,"  is  as  two  to  one  :  in  other  words, 
the  volume  of  brain  in  the  monkey  most  like  man  is  thirty- 
four  cubic  inches,  while  that  of  the  man  is  sixty-eight  cubic 
inches.  Up  to  the  present  time  a  tailless  monkey,  or  a  tailed 
man,  has  not  been  found  as  the  long-looked-for  "  missing  link." 

NOTE  54,  p.  102. 

"  And  the  deep  problems  of  the  Book  of  Job 
Our  modern  knowledge  shows  us  how  to  probe." 

Probably  no  book  in  the  Bible  has  been  as  much  illumined 
to  the  earnest  student  as  the  Book  of  Job,  which  abounds  in 
subtle  references  to  natural  phenomena,  and  wherein  are 
many  questions  to  which  modern  discovery  has  furnished 
answers.  A  translation  of  this  remarkable  book  by  that  dis 
tinguished  Hebrew  scholar,  Professor  THOMAS  J.  CONANT, 
D.D.,  brings  out  in  a  very  striking  manner  the  significance 
and  subtlety  of  many  of  its  scientific  allusions,  and  will  abun 
dantly  reward  the  student  for  its  careful  review. 

NOTE  55,  p.  103. 
"  The  creed  sees  only  not  so  far  as  we" 

" '  God  is  law,'  say  the  wise,  O  soul !  and  let  us  rejoice ; 
For  if  He  thunder  by  law,  the  thunder  is  yet  His  voice : 


NOTES.  131 

Speak  to  Him,  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  spirit  with  spirit  can  meet ; 
Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  or  feet." 

—  TENNYSON,  "The  Higher  Pantheism." 


NOTE  56,  p.  107. 
"  As  all  the  morning  stars  together  sttng" 

"  When  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of 
God  shouted  for  joy."  —  JOB  xxxviii.  7. 


3m-8,'49(B5572)470 

;-^5!I     fl 


LOS  AN6ESUES 


I      A  A     000118201    3 


E 

'  "-      •       '- 


